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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14S80 

(716)872-4503 


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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHJVI/ICIVIH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian' Institute  for  Historical  l^iliiiroreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiquc 


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> 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notas/Notas  tachniquaa  at  bibliographiquas 


Tha  Instituta  hat  anantptad  to  obtain  tha  baat 
original  copy  availabia  for  filming.  Faaturaa  of  thia 
copy  which  may  ba  bibliographically  uniqua, 
which  may  altar  any  of  tha  imagas  in  tha 
raproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  changa 
tha  usual  mathod  of  filming,  ara  chackad  balow. 


□    Colourad  covars/ 
Couvartura  da  coulaur 


[~~|    Covars  damagad/ 


D 


D 
D 


D 
D 


n 


n 


Couvartura  andommagte 


Covars  rastorad  and/or  laminatad/ 
Couvartura  rastaurte  at/ou  paliiculte 


□    Covar  titia  missing/ 
La 


titra  da  couvartura  manqua 


Colourad  maps/ 

Cartas  giographiquas  an  coulaur 


Colourad  Ink  (i.a.  othar  than  blua  or  black)/ 
Encra  da  coulaur  (i.e.  autra  qua  blaua  ou  noiral 


I      I   Colourad  plataa  and/or  illustrations/ 


Planchas  at/ou  illustrations  9n  coulaur 


Bound  with  othar  material/ 
Rail*  avac  d'autres  documents 


Tight  binding  miy  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  re  Mure  serrie  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distorsion  le  long  de  la  marge  int^rieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appeer  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certainas  pages  blanches  ajoutAes 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dana  le  taxte. 
mais,  lorsque  cela  Atait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  M  filmAas. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  supplAmentaires; 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  ttt  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  ddtails 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sent  peut-Atre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique.  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite.  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  mithoda  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiqute  ci-dessous. 


I      I   Coloured  pages/ 


D 


Pagea  de  couleur 

Pages  damaged/ 
Pagea  andommagtes 

Pages  restored  and/oi 

Pages  restaur^as  at/ou  pelliculAes 

Pages  discoloured,  suined  or  foxet 
Pages  dicolories,  tachetAes  ou  piquies 


I — I   Pages  damaged/ 

p~1    Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 

r~~1    Pages  discoloured,  suined  or  foxed/ 


□Pages  detached/ 
Pages  ditachies 


Showthrough/ 
Transparence 


I      I    Quality  of  print  varies/ 


Quality  inigala  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  material/ 
Comprend  du  material  supplimentaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Mition  disponible 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refiimed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuiilet  d'errata.  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  iti  filmies  A  nouveau  de  fapon  A 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


This  Item  is  filmed  at  tha  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  filmi  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu*  ci-dessous. 


10X 

14X 

18X 

22X 

26X 

»X 

y 

12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


'jaaip^^«^ 


Th«  copy  filmad  h«r«  has  b««n  r«produc«d  thanks 
to  tha  ganarosity  of: 


L'axamplaira  fiimi  fut  raproduit  grica  i  la 
gAniroait*  da: 


L^itlature  du  Quebec 


Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  baat  quality 
poaaibia  conaldaring  tha  condition  and  laglbllity 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  Icaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  spaciflcationa. 


Original  coplaa  in  printad  papar  covara  ara  filmad 
baglnning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad  or  illuatratad  Impraa- 
sion.  or  tha  bacic  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  coplaa  ara  filmad  baglnning  on  tha 
first  paga  with  a  printad  or  illustratad  impraa- 
slon.  and  anding  on  tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad 
or  illuatratad  impraaalon. 


Tha  laat  racordad  frama  on  aach  microfieha 
shall  contain  tha  symbol  —ii»>(  moaning  "CON> 
TiNUED").  or  tha  symbol  ▼  (moaning  "END"), 
whichavar  appiiaa. 


Ltfgiilature  du  QuMmc 
QuMmc 

Laa  imagaa  suh/antac  ont  4ti  raproduitas  avac  la 
plua  grand  soin,  compta  tanu  da  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattat*  da  l'axamplaira  film*,  at  an 
conformiti  avac  laa  conditlona  du  contrat  da 
filmaga. 

Laa  axamplalraa  originaux  dont  la  couvartura  an 
papiar  aat  Imprimte  sont  filmto  an  commandant 
par  la  pramlar  plat  at  an  tarminant  soit  par  la 
damlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'Impraaaion  ou  d'iliuatratlon.  soit  par  la  sacond 
plat,  salon  la  cas.  Toua  laa  autras  axamplalraa 
originaux  aont  filmte  an  commandant  par  la 
pramlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'Impraaaion  ou  d'illustration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  damlAra  paga  qui  comporta  una  talla 
amprainta. 

Un  daa  aymbolaa  auhranta  apparaltra  sur  la 
damiira  imaga  da  chaqua  microfieha,  salon  la 
caa:  la  symbols  — »>signifia  "A  SUIVRE",  la 
symbols  ▼  aignifia  "FIN". 


Mapa.  platas,  charta,  ate.,  may  ba  filmad  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratloa.  Thoaa  too  larga  to  ba 
antiraly  includad  in  ona  axpoaura  ara  filmad 
baglnning  Ir,  tha  uppar  laft  hand  comar,  iaft  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  aa  many  framaa  aa 
raquirad.  Tha  following  diagrama  illustrata  tha 
mathod: 


Laa  cartaa,  planchaa,  tablaaux,  ate,  pauvant  Atra 
fiimia  i  daa  taux  da  rMuctlon  diffArants. 
Lorsqua  la  documant  aat  trop  grand  pour  Atra 
raproduit  an  un  saul  clichA,  11  ast  film*  A  partir 
da  I'angla  aupAriaur  gaucha,  da  gaucha  i  droita, 
at  da  hauf;  an  baa,  an  pranant  la  nombra 
d'imagaa  nAcaaaaira.  Las  diagrammaa  suivants 
iilustrant  la  mithoda. 


t . .  ^ 

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PRAIRIE  FARMING  IN  AMERICA. 


WITH  NOTES  BY  THE  WAY 


ON 


CANADA  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


BT 


JAMES    CAIED,  M.P. 

AUTHOR  OF  "  ENQLISH  AGRIOULTDRB,"  "  LETTERS  ON  THE  CORN  0R0P9  ' 
"  HIGH  FARUIKG,"  "  THE  WEST  OF  IRELAND,"  ETC. 


NEW  YORK : 
D.    APPLETON   ^ND    COMPANY, 

848  &  848   BBOADWAY. 
1859. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Present  Posltioa  of  Agriculturists  in  England.— Continued  Rise  of  Bent.— In< 
creased  Bate  of  Wages  not  equally  certain.— Competition  in  the  Hire  of  Land. 
— Whence  It  arises.- Foreign  Produce.— That  of  Lands  of  superior  Fertility 
chiefly  affects  us. — Increasing  Value  of  Live  Stock. — Home  Competitiua  the 
true  Source  of  diminished  Profits.— Extent  to  which  the  Business  of  Farming 
is  giving  place  to  other  Occupations.— Area  of  ordinary  Farming  thus  cur- 
tailed.—Necessity  for  Farmers  to  thin  the  ranks  of  Home  Competition. — 
Daily  Consumption  of  Foreign  Orain.— Offers  a  Good  Prospect  to  the  Emi- 
grant.— The  Prairies  of  Illinoia  a  suitable  Field  forhim.— Their  Advantages.— 
Price.— Ague.— Stock  Farming  and  Indian  Corn.— Cost  of  Voyage  and  Jour- 
ney.—The  present  a  very  favourable  Tim^      7 

LETTER  I. 

Voyage  in  the  "  Persia."— New  York.— The  Hudson  Biver.— Barron  Soil.— Amer- 
ican Bailways.— Saratoga.— Extravagant  Prices.— Lake  George.— Lake  Cham- 
plain.— Sunshine  and  Storm.— Burlington  in  Vermont.— Maine  Liquor  Law.— 
The  Boundary  Line.— Poor  French  Canadians.— The  St.  Lawrence.— Montreal. 
—The  Victoria  Tubular  Bridge.— Grand  Trunk  Bailway.— Ottawa.— The 
Lumber  Trade.— Ottawa  or  Montreal  as  the  Capital.— Shorter  Water  Route  to 
the  Western  Lakes.- Value  of  Land.— Grants  of  Land.— Prescott.— Kingston. 
— Coburg.- Process  of  clearing  the  Forest.— Toronto.— Hamilton.— Complaint 
of  low  Wages  and  want  of  Employment 13 

LETTER  IL 


Falls  of  Niagara.— Canada  West.- Mode  of  Farming.— Short  Wheat  Crop.— 
Average  Produce.— London.— Price  of  Land.— Climate.— Diseases  produced 
by  Malaria.— Rich  Lands  more  subject  to  them  than  poor.— Proposed  Route  to 
British  Columbia.— Red  River  and  the  Valley  of  the  Saskatchewan.— The 
Hudson  Bay  Territory.— Alleged  Fertility  of  the  Country.— Failure  of  the 
Selkirk  Settlement.— Plague  of  Grasshoppers.- Mr.  Eitson'a  Accoimt  of  the 
Settlement  on  Red  R^'^er.— Policy  of  Abandoning  that  Country  to  Canada.— 
Probable  Over-estimate  of  iti  Value .28 


IV 


CONTENTS. 


LETTER  III. 

Michigan.— Ferry  Steamer.— Detroit.— State  Agricultural  Show.— Railway  Hlnti 
for  Home,  to  Prevent  Dust,  and  communicate  with  Driver.— Shelter  for  Engine 
Driver.— Illlnols.-Extent  of  the  Rich  Valley  of  the  Upper  MiBalBsippi. — 
Chicago.— Its  wonderful  ProgreBs. — Railway  Investments.— Development  too 
rapid.— Encouraged  by  high  Prices  of  Agricultural  Produce.— Money  Panic 
Bucceeded  by  Failure  of  Crops,  and  unhealthy  Season.— Immigration  sua- 
pended.— Capacity  of  Country  for  rapid  Improvement.— View  of  the  State  of 
Illinois  on  a  Line  of  Seven  Hundred  Miles.— Settlers  from  Vermont.— Oalena 
— Dunleith 85 


Be 


LETTER  IV. 

General  View  of  the  State  of  Illinois.— Comparison  of  Soil  and  Extent  with  Eng- 
land.— Dunleith  to  Mendota.— Vast  Wheat  Fields.- Experience  of  a  Scotch 
Carpenter.— Farming  by  Shares.- Cost  of  Farm-houses.- The  River  Illinois. 
—Coal  Lands  of  La  Salle.— Corn  Starch  Factory.- Bloomlngton.— Settlers 
from  New  York  State.— Account  of  his  Operations  by  Pioneer  of  Settlement. 
-Unusual  Failure  of  Wheat  Crop.— Discouragement  caused  by  this.— Temp- 
tations of  Credit  System.- Instance  of  Purchase  and  Cost  of  making  a  Farm.— 
History  of  an  early  Settler.— The  Banking  System  of  the  Country.— Profits  of 
Banking.— "Shin Plaster"  Banks 48 

LETTER  V. 

Springfield.— Appearance  of  Country,— Cattle  Show.— Stock  Farming.— Experi- 
ence of  a  successful  Farmer.— His  Mode  of  laying  his  Farm  to  Grass.— Novel 
Implements.- Merino  Sheep  Farming.— Account  of  It  by  the  Owner  of  a  largo 
Flock.- System  of  managing  Prairie  Land  recommended.— Sowing  Grass 
Seeds  on  Snow.— Valuable  Meadow.— Price  of  Merino  Sheep.— Superiority  of 
Prairie  to  Timbered  Country.— The  Governor  of  Illinois.— The  Public  Officers 
of  State.— Manners  of  the  People.— Decatur.— Lost  on  the  Prairie.— The 
American  Settler.— Mutual  Help.— Fences.— Pana  and  its  Neighbourhood.— 
Settlement  of  French  Canadians 69 


LETTER  VI. 


Pana  to  Centralla.— The  Grey  Prairie.- Best  Wheat  Soil.— Fruit.— Tobacco.— 
Vines.— Silk.— Rich  Mineral  District  South  of  Centralia.— Lines  of  Communi- 
cation with  Ocean  by  New  Orleans  and  Chicago.— Probable  Market  for  Wheat 
in  Cuba.— Description  of  Grey  Prairie.— Value  of  Oxen.— German  Settlement. 
—Large  Purchase  of  Land  by  Kentucky  Grazier.— His  Plan  and  Prospects.— 
Farina.— Trading  Spirit  of  the  People.— Urbana.— Complaints  of  Wheat  Fail- 
ure.—Peach  Growing.— Large  Grazing  Farm.— Management  of  Stock.— Uni- 
formity of  Soil.— Coldness  of  Weather.— Steam  Plough.— Machines  for  econo- 
mizing Manual  Labour  In  greater  Demand.— Bement.— Kentucky  Settlor.— His 


CONTENTS.  ▼ 

Plan  of  managing  Eight  Thousand  Acres.— Onarga.— Its  Neighbourhood.— 
Dairy  Farming.— Artesian  Wells.— Kankakee  to  Momence.— Price  of  Land.— 
Broom  Corn.— Country  from  Momence  to  Monee.— Management  and  Produce 
— Monee  to  Chicago 69 

LETTER  VII. 

Boll  and  Climate  of  Illinois.- Nature  of  Prairie  Boil.— Its  Chemical  Composition. 
—Rich  in  Nitrogen.— Wheat  Culture  and  Produce.— Indian  Corn.— Facility 
of  Culture.— Oats.— Barley.— Sorghum.— Substitute  for  Sugar-cane.— Potatoes. 
—Stock  Farming.— Prairie  Grass.— Blue  Grass.- Timothy  .       .       .       .80 

LETTER  VIII. 

Average  Prices  of  Agricultural  Produce  in  Illinois.- Cost  of  Labour.— Cost  of  In- 
dian Corn  in  England.— Cost  at  which  Pork  may  be  raised  by  It.— Profit  of 
Farming  in  Illlnois.-Detalled  Example. — Lands  of  Illinois  Central  Railway. 
—Advantages  of  their  Position.- The  Company's  Terms  of  Sale  for  Cash  or 
Credit.- Exemption  ft-om  State  Taxes  till  paid  for.— Comparison  between 
Farming  In  England  and  owning  Land  In  Illinois.— Capital  necessary  to  start 
one  Farmer  In  England  sufficient  for  four  Land  Owners  In  Illinois.— Profits  of 
Sheep  Farming.— Lands  farther  West  only  apparently  cheaper.— Great  Oppor- 
tunity for  Farm  Labourers  of  Character  and  Skill.— Farming  by  Shares.— 
Facility  for  Investing  Money  In  Land.— Even  the  Labourer  can  so  Invest  his 
Savings  from  Time  to  Time.— Prospects  of  Emigrants  from  Towns    .       .    87 

LETTER  IX. 

The  Ague:  Opinion  of  a  leading  Physician.— Easily  curable.— Wisconsin.— 
Life-guardsman  turned  Implement  Maker.— Success  of  Emigrants.- Madison. 
—Milwaukee.— Its  Trade  Facilities.— Schools.— Public  Buildings— Catholic 
Church.— Western  Shore  of  Lake  Michigan.— General  Nature  of  Country.- 
Green  Bay.— Early  French  Settlements.- Their  Hold  in  the  N«.  ■  ti  West.— 
Character  of  various  Races  of  Settlers.— Price  of  Land.— Its  Value  t  jpendent 
on  cheap  Access.- Interest  of  Money.— Credit  low.—"  Custom"  pleaded  for 
Abuses.— London  Carpenter's  Experience  as  a  Settler.— The  Mississippi.- 
Nails  and  Glass  only  allowed  by  American  Government  to  their  Surveying 
Engineers.— River  Steamers.— Anecdotes.— Lake  Pepin.— St.  Croix  .       .    05 


LETTER  X. 

St.  Paul's.— Route  to  Red  River.— Minnesota.— Dally  Newspapers.— Market 
Place.— Red  Indians  selling  wild  Ducks.— American  Militia.- Fort  Snelllng.— 
Minnehaha.— Falls  of  St.  Anthony.— Lands  and  Funds  set  apart  for  Public 
Objects.— The  Credit  System.— Dubuque.— Burllngton.—Iowa.— Natural  Ob- 
stacle to  Progress  of  Population  Westwards.- Wages.— Nauvoo.— St.  Louis 
In  Missouri.— Slave  State.— Iron  Mountain.— Relative  Cost  of  Production 
of  British  and  American  Iron ....  107 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


LETTEI^XI. 

The  Ohio.— Cincinnati.— Vine  Culture,— Kentucky.— Bonrbon  WhlBky.- Cin- 
cinnati to  Columbus.- Small  Farmers  decreasing.— Westward  Movement  of 
Population.— Indian  Corn  never  falls.— Wheat  precarious.- Average  Produce 
very  low.— Live  Stock.- Profits  of  Farming.— Labour  economised  by  Steam.— 
Quantity  of  Whisky  produced.— Public  Expenditure  on  Education.— Com- 
pared  with  England.— Rate  of  Taxation.— Crossing  the  Alleghanies.- Vir- 
ginia.-Maryland.— Washington.- Baltimore.— Philadelphia.— New  York  .— 
Boston.— Home T       ....  118 


Appendix  I.— Composition  of  Prairie  and  other  fertile  Bolls    . 


127 


Appkndix  II.— Composition  of  four  Prairie  Soils,  showing  the  portion  soluble  In 
acids,  and  the  portion  Insoluble •       .       .  128 


Appsndix  III.— Letter  of  Professor  Voeloker 128 


PRAIRIE  FARMING  IN  AMERICA. 


.  127 


■•♦• 


.  128 


INTEODUCTION. 


PreBent  Position  of  Agrioulturiats  in  England.— Continued  Rise  of  Rent.— In- 
creased Rate  of  Wages  not  equally  certain.— Competition  in  the  Hire  of  Land. 
-Whence  it  arises.- Foreign  Produce.— That  of  Lands  of  superior  Fertility 
chiefly  affects  us.- Increasing  Value  of  Live  Stock.— Home  Competition  the 
true  Source  of  diminished  Profits.— Extent  to  ivhich  the  Business  of  Farming 
is  giving  place  to  other  Occupations.- Area  of  ordinary  Farming  thus  cur- 
tailed.—Necessity  for  Farmers  to  thin  the  ranks  of  Home  Competition.— 
Dally  Consumption  of  Foreign  Qrain.— OfTera  a  Oood  Prospect  to  the  Emi- 
grant.—The  Prairies  of  Illinois  a  suitable  Field  for  him.— Their  Advantages. — 
Price.— Ague.— Stock  Farming  and  Indian  Corn.— Cost  of  Voyage  and  Jour- 
ney.—The  present  a  very  favourable  Time. 


The  present  position  of  the  agricultural  body  in  the  United 
Kingdom  is  interesting  and  peculiar.  The  landowner  and  the 
agricultural  laborer  are  both  profiting  by  the  same  cause,  a 
limited  supply  of  the  commodity  in  which  they  deal.  So  long 
as  this  country  continues  to  prosper,  the  value  of  land  must 
increase,  for  there  can  be  no  increase  of  the  land  itself.  But 
the  demand  for  labour  varies,  and  the  supply  is  subject  to  causes 
which  render  it  uncertain.  While,  so  long  as  the  present  sys- 
tem of  taxation  continues,  there  must  be  a  continued  rise  in 
the  value  of  land,  there  appears  to  me  no  equal  certainty  of  a 
progressive  advance  in  the  rate  of  wages. 

But  the  hirer  of  land,  the  farmer,  must  inevitably  suffer 


COMPETITION  FOR  FABATS 


from  the  continued  competition  for  its  possession.  He  has 
not  only  to  meet  his  own  class,  a  necessarily  increasing  body, 
in  this  competition,  but  to  contend  with  men  v/ho,  having  niade 
money  in  other  pursuits,  wish  to  retire  to  the  more  pleast  •  ,ble 
occupations  of  a  country  life.  It  is  this  competition  which  is 
the  true  cause  of  the  reduced  profits  of  farming,  and  this  is 
more  likely  to  increase  than  diminish.  Great  Britain  is  the 
most  attractive  place  of  residence  on  the  surface  of  the  globe, 
whether  we  regard  its  equable  and  healthy  climate,  its  varied 
scenery  and  field  sports,  the  almost  sacred  character  of  the 
rights  of  property  in  the  eyes  of  its  people,  and  the  admirable 
combination  of  liberty  and  order  which  is  preserved  under  its 
political  constitution.  Men  will  pay  for  these  advantages, 
when  they  can  afford  it,  a  price  which  is  not  measured  by  the 
ordinary  rates  of  profit. 

Besides  this  competition,  which  raises  the  rate  of  rent,  the 
farmer  must  now  meet  in  his  own  market  the  produce  of  low- 
er-priced foreign  lands.  He  will,  no  doubt,  always  have  the 
cost  of  transport  in  his  favour,  and  this  would  generally  be  suf- 
ficient to  balance  the  difference  of  rent ;  but  the  land  of  this 
country  cannot  be  cultivated  without  manure,  and  the  farmers 
of  those  foreign  countries  whose  soil  is  rich  enough  to  yield 
com  for  many  years  without  manure,  are  thereby  able  to 
undersell  the  British  producer  in  his  own  market.  The  cost 
of  labour  when  the  value  of  food  of  the  working  stock  is  calcu- 
lated, is  nearly  the  same  at  home  and  abroad,  and  superior 
fertility  alone  will  be  found  to  turn  the  advantage  in  favour  of 
the  foreign  producer. 

The  special  adaptation  of  Britain  for  the  production  of  live 
stock,  and  the  constantly  increasing  demand  for  that  branch  of 
the  farmer's  produce,  have  hitherto  modified  the  effects  of 
foreign  competition  in  com.  But  even  these,  excellent  though 
they  have  proved,  cannot  permanently  counteract  the  cause  of 


■I 


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VI 

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t 

II 


WILL  COMPEL  EMIGRATION. 


the  farmer's  diminished  profits :  viz.,  home  "onipetition  for 
the  possession  of  land.  The  soil  here  is  now  becoming  more 
valuable  for  other  4)urposes  than  ordinary  farming,  and  the 
proportion  between  the  producers  and  consumers  of  food  is 
undergoing  a  rapid  change.  It  appears  from  the  Census  that, 
in  1851,  only  16  per  cent,  of  the  adult  population  of  England 
was  occupied  in  the  business  of  agriculture.  During  the  pre- 
vious twenty  years  the  proportion  had  fallen  from  28  to  16 
per  cent.,  from  no  actual  decrease  of  the  numbers  employed 
in  agriculture,  but  from  the  far  greater  proportional  increase 
of  trade.  The  same  gradual  change  is  going  on.  At  this  time 
there  is  probably  not  more  than  one-tenth  of  the  adult  pop- 
ulation of  England  employed  in  the  culture  of  the  land.  The 
manufacturing,  mining,  and  town  populations  are  thus  grad- 
ually absorbing  the  business  of  the  country,  increasing  the 
value  of  the  land  and  the  profits  of  the  landowner,  but  in  the 
same  proportion  diminishing  the  area  left  for  ordinary  farm- 
ing. 

The  time  seems  thus  to  have  arrived  when  the  farmers  must 
thin  the  ranks  of  home  competition  by  sending  off  the  young 
and  enterprising  to  countries  where  they  may  become  the 
owners  of  a  fertile  soil,  and  profitably  contribute  to  supply  the 
wants  of  the  old  country,  whose  land  can  no  longer  meet  the 
demands  of  her  dense  population.  During  the  last  year  we 
have  imported  into  this  country  at  the  rate  of  nearly  one  mil- 
lion quarters  of  grain  each  month.  We  have  thus  in  addition 
to  our  home  crop,  consumed  each  day  the  produce  of  Ten 
Thousand  acres  of  foreign  land,  a  demand  so  vast  as  to  offer 
to  young  men  of  our  own  country  the  strongest  inducements 
to  take  their  share  in  its  supply. 

Having,  during  last  autumn,  had  an  opportunity  of  making 
a  pretty  careful  inspection  of  a  part  of  the  valley  of  the  Upper 
Mississippi,  probably  the  most  fertile  corn  region  in  the  world, 
1* 


10 


ILLINOIS  OFFERS 


;  if  ^ 


I  have  collected  for  publication,  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  let- 
ters, the  notes  made  by  me  at  the  time.  There  may  be  other 
countries  which  present  equally  good  prospects  to  the  agricul- 
tural emigrant.  I  venture  to  speak  only  of  that  which  I  have 
seen.  This  seems  to  me  to  offer  the  very  field  which  we  want 
at  present, — a  virgin  soil  of  easy  culture,  with  no  forests  to 
clear,  of  extraordinary  natural  fertility,*  in  a  country  traversed 
by  a  most  perfect  system  of  railways,  where  no  settler  need 
be  more  than  ten  miles  from  a  station,  whose  shore  is  washed 
by  one  of  those  great  lakes  through  which  an  outlet  is  found 
to  the  Atlantic,  and  which  possesses  in  the  Mississippi  itself 
a  vast  artery  of  commerce,  navigable  by  steamers  for  thousands 
of  miles.  A  great  part  of  the  country  is  underlaid  with  coal, 
iron,  and  lime,  thus  affording  a  present  supply  of  such  minerals, 
and  the  prospect  of  a  great  increase  of  value  should  the  people 
ever  turn  their  attention  to  manufactures.  There  is  a  complete 
organisation  of  markets  throughout  the  country ;  and,  setting 
aside  the  export  to  England,  there  is  a  very  large  and  increas- 
ing local  demand  for  every  article  of  agricultural  produce. 
The  price  of  labour  is  economised  by  the  most  extensive  and 
profitable  use  of  agricultural  machinery,  and  by  the  compara- 
tively small  cost  of  maintaining  horses  and  working  cattle. 
The  grazing  of  cattle  and  sheep  is  very  profitable,  and  the 
production  of  merino  wool,  already  large,  admits  of  vast  in- 
crease. 

The  fee  simple  of  this  land  can  be  purchased  at  from  40s. 
to  50*.  and  60*.  an  acre. 

As  a  mere  investment,  this  land  would  pay  well  to  pur- 
chase and  hold  for  a  few  years,  and  the  increasing  supply  of 
gold,  of  which  America  herself  yields  an  annual  crop  of  ten 
millions  sterling,  will  every  year  contribute  to  the  higher  rel- 


*  See  "  ChemicBl  Analysis  of  Soils"  by  Professor  Voelcker,  Appendix  L 


▲  FAYOUBABLE  FIELD. 


It 


ative  value  of  land  here  and  elsewhere.  But  the  British  em- 
igrant, when  he  purchases  this  land,  secures  to  himself  not  only 
the  profits  of  farming  it,  but  has  also  the  growing  increase  in 
the  value  of  the  land  itself,  a  right  to  which  he  can  have  no 
share  at  home.  The  country  is  now  brought  within  a  fort- 
night's journey  from  our  shores,  and  is  actually  more  accessible 
from  Great  Britain  than  most  parts  of  Ireland  were  fifty  years 
ago. 

There  is  one  drawback  to  which  I  have  several  times  ad- 
verted in  these  letters.  Besides  the  ordinary  hardships  to 
which  men  are  content  to  submit  when  they  leave  the  com- 
forts of  an  old  country  for  the  p'  aspect  of  future  great  benefit 
to  themselves  and  their  families,  emigrants  to  rich  new  coun- 
tries, south  of  the  45th  degree  of  latitude,  are  in  certain  seasons 
more  or  less  liable  to  an  attack  of  ague.  It  is  very  fatal  to 
old  people,  but  the  young  seldom  suffer  more  than  temporary 
inconvenience  from  it ;  and  the  climate  which  produces  ague  is 
nearly  free  from  some  other  and  more  fatal  complaints  which 
are  met  with  in  colder  latitudes.  By  degrees  the  emigrant 
becomes  acclimated,  and  very  many  never  experience  the  dis- 
ease at  all.  Care  and  remedial  measures  prevent  or  remove 
it,  and  it  gradually  disappears  with  the  general  settlement  and 
cultivation  of  the  country.  The  population  returns  prove  that 
the  ague  has  no  serious  effect  on  the  health  of  the  people.  A 
country  whose  people  double  in  ten  years,  as  Illinois  did  be- 
tween 1845  and  1855,  cannot  be  very  unhealthy.  Indeed, 
compared  with  many  States  in  the  Union,  Illinois  stands  high 
in  the  tables  of  health.  She  is  before  New  York,  Connecticut, 
and  Massachusetts,  Eastern  States  which  are  generally  deemed 
healthy.  And  in  comparison  with  England,  the  mortality  in 
Illinois  contrasts  most  favourably, — De  Bow's  compendium  of 
the  seventh  census  of  the  United  States  showing  that  her  death 
rate  in  1850  was  less  than  14  in  the  1000,  while  that  of  Eng 


I 


,1 


fiiU 


12 


STOCK  AND  INDIAN  COBN. 


land  is  at  present  rather  more  than  24.  While  I  think  it  right 
to  direct  the  emigrant's  attention  to  the  ague  as  an  element  in 
his  calculations,  it  forms  in  reality  a  very  small  counterpoise 
to  the  many  advantages  which  are  open  to  those  who  make 
judicious  and  well-chosen  settlements  on  the  Western  Prai- 
ries. 

There  are  two  branches  of  his  business  to  which  I  would 
specially  ask  the  attention  of  the  British  emigrant  to  Illinois, 
viz.  stock  farming,  and  the  cultivation  of  Indian  corn.  Full 
details  will  be  found  on  both  subjects  in  these  letters.  A 
good  stock  of  cattle  or  sheep  can  be  bought  by  a  comparatively 
small  outlay  of  capital ;  and,  so  long  as  the  open  Prairie  is 
thinly  settled,  grass  for  half  the  year  may  be  had  for  nothing, 
and  hay  for  the  other  half  for  only  the  cost  of  saving  it.  In 
regard  to  Indian  corn,  both  climate  and  soil  are  more  suitable 
to  it  than  wheat.  It  can  be  grown  to  any  extent,  with  a  cer- 
tain measure  of  success,  every  year,  and,  unlike  wheat,  this 
grain  may  be  harvested  with  safety  over  a  period  of  many 
weeks.  A  small  and  regular  supply  of  labour  thus  suffices  for 
the  management  of  a  large  extent  of  land.  There  is  always  a 
market  for  it,  and  the  lowest  price  at  which  we  have  ever  seen 
it  in  England  will  afford  a  very  good  return  to  the  Prairie 
farmer  of  Illinois,  after  deducting  all  the  charges  of  transport. 

An  emigrant  from  this  country  may  be  set  down  in  Illinois 
at  a  total  cost  from  Liverpool  or  Glasgow  of  6^.  7*.,  inclusive 
of  provisions. 

The  present  is  a  most  favourable  time  for  commencing  to 
farm  in  Illinois.  The  panic  of  1857  has  not  yet  been  forgotten, 
and  the  prices  at  which  every  sort  of  contract  (building,  fencing, 
ploughing)  may  be  executed,  are  50  per  cent,  below  the  average 
rates. 


'mI; 


LETTEE   I. 


Voyage  in  the  "  Persia."— New  York,— The  Hudson  River.— Barren  Soil.— Amer- 
ican Railways.- Saratoga.— Extravagant  Prices.— Lake  George.— Lake  Cham- 
plaln.— Sunshine  and  Storm.— Burlington  in  Vermont.— Maine  Liquor  Law.— 
The  Boundary  Line.— Poor  French  Canadians.- The  St.  Lawrence.— Montreal. 
—The  Victoria  Tubular  Bridge.— Grand  Trunk  Railway.— Ottawa.— The 
Lumber  Trade. — Ottawa  or  Montreal  as  the  Capital. — Shorter  Water  Route  to 
the  Western  Lakes. — Value  of  Land.— Grants  of  Land.— Prescott.— Kingston. 
—Coburg.— Process  of  clearing  the  Forejt. — Toronto. — Hamilton. — Complaint 
of  low  Wages  and  want  of  Employment. 


On  the  4th  of  September,  1858, 1  embarked  with  a  friend  on 
board  the  "Persia"  at  Liverpool,  and  loosed  from  our  moor- 
ings in  the  afternoon  to  proceed  on  our  voyage  to  New  York. 
The  ship  had  a  full  cargo  and  more  than  200  cabin  passengers. 
Great  order  and  regularity  prevailed  on  board,  and  though  we 
had  heavy  head  winds  all  the  way  across  the  Atlantic,  and  two 
severe  gales,  the  voyage  on  the  whole  was  pleasant  and  pros- 
perous. On  the  evening  of  the  twelfth  day  we  reached  New 
York. 

The  bright  clear  sky  and  the  sunny  look  of  the  houses  and 
public  buildings,  with  the  frequent  cafes,  reminded  us  that  we 
were  now  in  the  latitude  of  Naples.  And  the  appearance  of 
the  people  was  so  diflferent  from  that  of  Englishmen  that  we 
almost  felt  surprised  to  hear  them  speaking  the  English  lan- 
guage. Everything  was  new  and  pleasant,  except  the  manners 
of  the  people,  and  the  extortionate  charges  of  every  one  from 
whom  it  was  necessary  to  obtain  the  slightest  service. 

After  spending  a  short  time  pleasantly  in  New  York  we  left 
it  for  Montreal,  taking  the  Hudson  River  route  to  Albany.     I 


^%s*^ 


I 

t 


I' 


14 


HUDSON  BIVEB  6CENEBT. 


was  somewhat  disappointed  with  the  far-famed  scenery  of  this 
river,  the  banks  of  which  (as  indeed  is  the  case  with  land  every- 
where in  America  at  this  season)  are  strikingly  deficient  in 
verdure.  The  aspect  of  the  rocky  clifis  and  the  broad  river  is 
very  pleasing,  enlivened  as  the  latter  was  by  numerous  white- 
sailed  little  sloops  passing  up  and  down,  and  now  and  then  by 
a  white  steamer  trailing  half  a  dozen  loaded  canal  boats.  Af- 
ter passing  West  Point  the  wooded  hills  in  the  foreground  are 
backed  by  the  Catskill  Mountains,  and  the  reaches  of  the  river 
are  here  extremely  picturesque.  But  the  wood,  though  there 
is  plenty  of  it,  is  little  better  than  copse  or  brushwood.  There 
are  no  fine  trees,  and  the  soil  appears  to  be  beyond  measure 
barren.  There  are  houses  here  and  there,  peeping  out  from 
the  woods,  with  green  outside  blinds,  and  towers  with  tall 
steeples,  all  very  white.  But  in  the  150  miles  between  New 
York  and  Albany  I  saw  no  good  land  and  no  grass  which  any 
British  ox  would  touch.  From  Albany  to  Troy  the  railroad 
cars  were  crammed  with  people,  all  hurrying  about,  and  yet  it 
was  diflScult  to  see  what  occupied  them,  as  there  are  few  signs 
of  manufacture,  and  the  soil  is  evidently  unfruitful  and  neg- 
lected. There  seemed  nothing  here  to  attract  or  create  much 
capital.  No  cheapness  of  price  would  compensate  for  the  nat- 
ural inferiority  of  such  land  to  good  land  in  our  own  country. 
The  lowland  along  the  river  is  marshy  and  aguish-looking,  and 
the  upland  seemed  either  bare  rock  or  stiff  clay.  Between  Al- 
bany and  Troy  there  were  some  patches  of  Indian  corn,  but  the 
country  is  very  uninviting, — no  verdure,  and  no  pleasant  home- 
steads. 

I  liked  New  York  from  its  variety  and  picturesque  novelty. 
But  the  country  so  far  disappoints  me,  and  the  same  barren  as- 
pect, changed  from  clay  to  blowing  sand,  continues  to  Lake 
Champlain.  The  railways  are  very  uneven  and  uneasy.  When 
I  awoke  after  my  first  day's  ride  I  thought  myself  at  sea  again. 


LAKE  GEOBGE. 


15 


feeling  the  sensation  which  one  experiences  after  a  stonny  voy- 
age. This  was  at  Saratoga,  the  great  watering-place  to  which 
the  Americans  resort  during  the  fachionable  season.  The 
season  was  now  over,  and  only  a  few  lingering  visitors  remained. 
The  town  is  an  assemblage  of  hotels,  at  which  you  are  "  taken 
in  and  done  for'*  at  10s.  6d.  a  day.  The  hotel  in  which  we 
stayed  is  the  largest.  It  has  beds  for  about  1000,  and  the 
waiters  are  all  black,  slow,  and  not  very  obliging.  The  prices 
of  everything  are  enormous.  A  guide-book  costs  8s.  4d.,  a 
bottle  of  sherry  85.  4c?.  to  IO5.  Gd.,  Madeira  24s.,  Bass*  beer  2s. 
6d.f  a  cab  for  three  miles  8s.  to  10s.  The  horses  are  not  un- 
like their  masters.  They  hold  up  their  heads,  shake  their  little 
cocktails,  and  away  they  fly  with  the  spider-wheel  carriage 
which  the  fast  Yankees  drive.  They  seem  in  a  desperate  hurry 
at  the  start,  and  yet  I  have  not  found  them  more  enduring  than 
an  English  horse  at  the  end  of  the  day's  journey. 

Lake  George  may  be  visited  by  spending  another  day,  and 
it  will  well  repay  the  time,  being  exceedingly  beautiful,  more 
so  than  Loch  Lomond,  which  it  resembles  in  size.  The  moun- 
tains are  not  so  high,  but  are  wooded  to  their  summits.  The 
hotel  accommodation  is  excellent,  and  good  sport  may  be  had 
by  boat-fishing.  In  driving  down  from  Lake  George  to  Ti- 
conderoga,  you  pass  through  a  little  village  with  four  conspicu- 
ous churches.  One  of  them  looks  neglected;  the  driver 
"  guesses  she  was  a  Baptist,  but  he  reckons  she  didn't  pay,  and 
they  stopped  running  her." 

At  Ticonderoga  we  embark  in  the  steamer  up  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  the  day  so  extremely  hot  and  calm  that  the  most  shady 
and  airy  place  is  welcomed.  For  some  hours  the  fast  steamer 
speeds  on  at  fifteen  miles  an  hour  through  the  smooth  water^ 
the  scene  on  the  left  presenting  a  pretty  foreground  of  farms 
along  the  lake,  backed  by  the  lofty  wooded  mountain  range  of 
this  part  of  the  State  of  New  York.     On  the  right  the  land  is 


It 


LAKE  CHAMPLAIN — ^VEBMOKT. 


;! 


broken  into  rounded  hills,  with  patches  of  woodland  and  com, 
but  chiefly  in  grass,  green  for  this  country,  and  giving  to  the 
State  its  character  and  name  of  Vermont.  Suddenly  we  feel  a 
whiflf  in  our  faces.  The  T;ind  has  changed,  a  dense  blackness 
is  covering  the  sky  northwards,  and  in  half  an  hour  we  have 
sailed  into  a  thunderstorm.  It  was  accompanied  and  followed 
by  a  gale,  and  in  another  half  hour  the  lately  placid  summer 
lake  was  surging  like  the  Atlantic.  Our  white  gala-day 
steamer  was  quite  unfit  to  cope  with  this,  and  the  shakes  she 
gave  when  struck  by  a  heavy  sea  shook  the  nerves  of  most  of 
the  passengers  on  board.  By  the  evening  we  reached  Burling- 
ton, on  the  Vermont  shore,  where,  with  other  Englishmen,  we 
landed  for  the  night,  at  a  large  hotel,  with  the  hope  of  a  good 
supper  after  our  storm-tossing.  But  we  had  reckoned  without 
our  host ; — ^we  found  ourselves  in  a  temperance  State,  actually 
under  the  Maine  Liquor  Law, — ^plenty  to  eat,  but  not  a  drop 
of  anything  stronger  than  water  to  drink,  without  a  medical 
certificate.  The  men  looked  no  better  than  those  in  the  other 
States,  the  bar  room  being  filled  with  idlers  chewing  and  spit- 
ting. The  women  certainly  seemed  more  fresh  and  ruddy,  yet 
it  is  odd  that  they  alone  should  show  the  good  effects  of  a  law 
which  could  not  have  been  intended  for  the  gentler  sex. 

Next  morning  we  proceeded  by  railway  towards  Montreal, 
crossing  Lake  Champlain  at  a  narrow  point  by  a  long  wooden 
bridge,  and  shortly  afterwards  entered  Canada.  The  line  be- 
tween the  two  countries  is  an  ideal  one,  not  more  definite  than 
the  march  of  two  Highland  farms.  The  land  is  cold  and  poor, 
held  in  strips  by  French  Canadians,  whose  listless  gait  and  lean 
cattle  betoken  a  poor  business.  The  notices  at  the  railway 
crossings  are  in  French,  and  the  country  people  at  the  stations, 
and  those  travelling  by  the  railway,  converse  in  French.  The 
weather  was  cold,  the  thermometer  having  fallen  since  the  pre- 
vious morniug  from  74  to  44, 


MONTREAL. 


17 


The  country  is  very  flat,  but  the  land  improves  in  quality 
as  we  approach  the  St.  Lawrence,  which,  opposite  Montreal,  is 
a  magnificent  stream,  like  an  arm  of  the  sea,  rushing  with  a 
great  tide,  two  miles  broad.  From  the  ferry  steamer  the  city 
is  seen  to  great  advantage,  its  wharves  stretching  along  the 
river,  and  the  tin  roofed  houses  and  church  cupolas  sparkling 
brilliantly  in  the  sun.  It  is  a  remarkably  handsome  town, 
backed  by  a  lofty  wooded  hill,  the  Mountain,  which  all  stran- 
gers are  expected  to  visit,  and  from  which  the  prospect  is  very 
extensive.  One  striking  object  is  the  Great  Victoria  Tubular 
Bridge  now  being  constructed  across  the  St.  Lawrence,  two 
miles  in  length,  as  the  ^daduct  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Eailway,  a 
prodigious  engineering  work,  but  which,  when  completed,  will 
in  all  seasons,  summer  and  winter,  afford  to  the  railway  a  con- 
tinuous outlet  to  the  Atlantic  for  the  whole  stream  of  traffic 
from  British  America  and  the  North  Western  States  of  the 
Union.  The  vast  expenditure  on  this  railway  and  its  works 
has  greatly  enriched  Montreal. 

From  Montreal  I  proceeded  to  Ottawa,  taking  railway  to 
La  Chine,  and  there  embarking  on  a  wide  lake-like  water  which 
is  the  confluence  of  the  rivers  St.  Lawrence  and  Ottawa.  Some 
miles  farther  up  we  reach  the  rapids  of  St.  Anne,  the  scene  of 
Moore's  song,  and  the  point  at  which  the  Grand  Trunk  rail- 
way crosses  from  the  island  of  Montreal  to  the  mainland  by 
another  large  engineering  work,  a  tube  and  bridge,  five  hun- 
dred yards  long.  Beyond  this  the  stream  divides,  sending  part 
of  its  waters  along  the  northern  side  of  the  island  of  Montreal, 
which  is  nearly  forty  miles  in  length  and  fertile,  farmed  by 
French  peasants  and  English  and  Scotch  farmers.  On  the  op- 
posite northern  shore  a  fine  tract  of  wooded  country,  about  ten 
miles  square,  has  been  reserved  for  an  Indian  tribe,  whose  vil- 
lage is  on  the  shore.  They  are  said  to  be  completely  controlled 
by  French  priests,  who  sufier   no  intercourse  with  settlers. 


18 


OTTAWA  AS  A  CAPrCAL. 


14 


•li' 
1*1: 

;f 

I 


and  allow  no  wharf  to  be  made  in  case  it  might  encourage 
traflSc. 

We  escape  another  series  of  rapids  by  changing  to  railway 
for  ten  miles,  through  a  wooded  country,  which,  where  partially 
cleared,  is  nearly  covered  with  huge  boulders  of  granite,  a  poor 
country,  supporting  a  poor  French  population.  We  then  again 
embarked  on  the  river.  Its  banks  nearly  all  the  rest  of  the  way 
to  Ottawa,  sixty-five  miles,  are  low  and  swampy,  farther  back 
partially  cleared,  with  wooded  highlands  on  the  north  shore  in 
the  background.  At  the  outlets  of  the  rivers  falling  into  the 
Ottawa  there  are  generally  saw-mills  and  large  piles  of  "lumber  " 
or  sawn  timber,  the  Eideau  Falls  thus  being  made  to  cut  up 
170,000  logs  in  a  season. 

The  city  of  Ottawa  is  finely  situated  on  the  summit  of  the 
bank.  From  the  flagstaff  on  the  hill  the  view  of  the  falls,  the 
river,  and  the  surrounding  country  is  extremely  fine,  and  noth- 
ing can  excel  its  position  as  the  site  of  a  town,  strongly  placed 
for  defence  if  need  be.  But  except  with  a  view  to  a  future 
plan,  if  such  were  contemplated,  of  a  shorter  way  to  Lake  Hu- 
ron from  the  Atlantic,  one  cannot  imagine  why  a  place  like 
this,  in  the  wilderness  and  out  of  the  present  line  of  traffic  al- 
together, should  have  been  chosen  by  the  home  government  in 
preference  to  Montreal  as  the  capital  of  Canada.  Even  if  Ot- 
tawa should  become  the  route  to  the  West,  Montreal  is  still  the 
outlet  to  the  ocean  through  which  all  must  pass,  and  is  already 
a  rich  and  populous  city,  with  all  the  necessary  public  build- 
ings, barracks,  and  accommodation  for  the  seat  of  government. 
It  would  be  little  more  absurd  to  decree  the  removal  of  the  seat 
of  government  from  London  to  Norwich  than  it  was  to  prefer 
Ottawa  to  Montreal. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  sooner  or  later  a  shorter  and 
better  water  route  from  the  Atlantic  to  Lake  Huron  than  that 
through  the  Welland  Canal  must  be  constructed.     Not  only 


'^. 


SHIP  CANAL  WANTED. 


1& 


may  the  route  be  vastly  shortened,  but  what  is  of  even  more 
consequence,  a  canal  with  capacity  for  ships  of  1000  tons  is 
wanted.  If  that  were  provided  the  teeming  harvests  of  the 
West  could  be  shipped  directly  to  the  Atlantic,  and  the  posi- 
tion of  Canada  enables  her  to  command  this  traffic.  Tlie  short- 
est route,  if  there  is  depth  of  water,  would  be  by  connecting  the 
navigation  of  the  Ottawa  river  with  French  river,  down  which 
a  passage  may  be  opened  to  Lake  Huron.  This  would  cut  off 
450  miles  of  the  present  water  route  between  the  shores  of  the 
three  western  lakes  and  the  Atlantic.  But  if  adequate  depth 
of  water  is  not  to  be  had  by  that  way,  a  ship  canal  between 
Toronto  and  Georgian  Bay  would  probably  secure  it.  The 
Canadian  Government  and  Legislature  would  do  a  great  ser- 
vice to  their  country  by  the  early  construction  of  a  ship  canal 
in  the  best  route  possible,  not  only  to  secure  the  transit  of  the 
Western  States,  but  to  serve  the  territory  on  the  north  shore 
of  Lake  Superior,  and  of  all  that  vast  country  on  the  Bed  River, 
and  the  Saskatchewan,  which  will  shortly  be  opened  to  their 
enterprise,  and  more  especially  if  it  should  be  determined  to 
make  this  the  route  to  the  gold  region  of  Fraser  Biver  and 
British  Columbia. 

I  visited  the  Chaudiere  Falls  by  moonlight.  The  view  from 
the  suspension  bridge  is  extremely  fine,  the  body  of  water  mag- 
nificent, and  the  varied  forms  into  which  the  water  breaks,  all 
along  the  extended  face  of  the  rocks,  are  very  beautiful.  This 
is  the  great  seat  of  the  lumber  trade.  The  logs,  cut  far  back 
in  the  woods  of  Canada,  find  their  way  down  the  river  to  this 
point,  red  pine,  yellow,  and  white, — and  a  kind,  the  hardest  of 
all,  Norway  pine.  Here  many  great  saw-mills  are  at  work, 
about  200,000  logs  being  cut  up  in  a  season. 

Farther  up  the  river  the  land  is  said  to  be  much  better  than 
that  below  Ottawa.  Wheat  is  grown  with  some  success, 
and  for  cleared  farms  large  prices  are  asked.    I  was  told  of 


20 


PBICB   OP  LAND — FREE  GRANTS. 


'■ 


I  'I' 


t> 


■I 


i!; 


one  farm,  ^iglil^  improved,  about  eighteen  miles  above  Ot- 
tawa, for  which  as  much  as  20/.  an  acre  was  expected.  This 
very  greatly  exceeded  any  estimate  that  I  could  form  of  the 
value  of  the  land  in  such  a  locality.  The  summers  are  very 
hot,  and  the  musquitoes  abound  in  the  woods  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  render  it  impossible  almost  to  live  in  them  at  that  season ; 
and  the  winters  are  long  and  severe,  costly  in  fodder  for  cattle 
over  such  an  extended  period. 

Between  the  Ottawa  river  and  Lake  Huron  free  grants  of 
land,  not  exceeding  100  acres  each,  are  made  to  settlers,  on 
condition  that  they  build  a  log  hut  and  reside  on  the  lot,  and 
that  they  clear  and  bring  under  cultivation  twelve  acres  in  four 
years.  These  twelve  acres  are  probably  reckoned  the  measure 
of  what  the  labour  of  one  man  and  his  family  may  be  reason- 
ably expected  to  clear  in  a  period  of  four  years.  The  whole  of 
this  country  is  covered  with  wood :  the  soil  being  more  sandy 
than  most  other  parts  of  Lower  Canada,  it  is  found  better  suited 
for  autumn  wheat ;  but  it  is  generally  too  poor,  even  when 
cleared,  to  be  profitable. 

From  Ottawa  to  the  St.  Lawrence  at  Prescott  the  country 
presents  a  similar  character.  On  the  shore  of  the  river  there 
are  some  good  farms  tolerably  cultivated,  with  hop-gardens  on 
favourable  spots.  From  this  point  to  Kingston,  and  thence  to 
Coburg,  the  country  is  but  partially  cleared  ;  very  often  the 
train  shoots  for  many  miles  together  through  the  primeval  for- 
est, a  path  having  been  cut  in  the  woods  for  the  railway  track, 
and  the  felled  trees  and  branches  still  lying  where  thrown,  on 
both  sides  of  the  line. 

Northwards  of  the  line,  between  Coburg  and  Toronto,  there 
is  a  better  tract  of  country,  which  has  well  repaid  the  labour  of 
the  farmer.  Formidable  though  the  cutting  down  of  the  forest 
appears,  to  the  strong  arm  of  a  healthy  young  man,  it  is  one  of 
the  most  pleasing  of  out-of-door  occupations.     Though  the  win- 


CLEABINQ  THE  FOREST. 


21 


bove  Ot- 
3d.  This 
m  of  the 
are  very 
an  extent 
tt  season ; 
for  cattle 

grants  of 
ttlers,  on 
lot,  and 
es  in  four 
measure 
i  reason- 
whole  of 
re  sandy 
ter  suited 
3n  when 

country 
er  there 
•dens  on 
hence  to 
ften  the 
3val  for- 
ly  track, 
own,  on 

to,  there 
abour  of 
le  forest 
s  one  of 
he  win- 


ters are  cold  the  weather  is  steady,  and  an  active  man  may 
work  in  his  shirt  sleeves  in  the  shelter  of  the  forest  during  most 
of  the  clearing  season.  To  cut  down  the  trees  on  an  acre  of 
land,  and  pile  them  with  the  branches  ready  for  burning,  is 
reckoned  a  good  month's  work,  and  by  steady  perseverance,  six 
acres  may  thus  be  accomplished  during  the  winter.  When  the 
ground  has  become  dry  and  warm,  the  piles  are  set  on  lire,  the 
ashes  are  afterwards  scattered  over  the  surface,  and  early  in 
autumn  the  ground  is  sown  with  wheat,  which  generally  proves 
a  good  crop.  On  fair  land,  in  a  good  situation,  a  hard-work- 
ing man,  if  he  gets  the  land  for  little  or  nothing,  may  soon 
earn  a  livelihood  in  this  manner.  But  if  he  has  to  pay  such 
prices  as  I  heard  quoted, — 51.  to  6/.  an  acre  in  any  eligible  lo- 
cality,— and  reckons  the  value  of  his  own  labour  in  clearing, 
and  the  loss  of  time  during  which  he  has  to  wait  for  his  first 
crop,  one  can  feel  no  surprise  that  the  tide  of  emigration  has  of 
late  years  set  steadily  westward  to  the  open  prairies,  where  the 
land  costs  less  to  purchase,  and  from  which  a  crop  may  be 
reaped  in  the  first  year  of  settlement. 

Toronto  is  a  fine  city,  with  an  excellent  harbour  on  Lake 
Ontario :  the  harbour  is  protected  by  a  low  neck  of  land  which 
forms  a  natural  breakwater.  Wide  streets,  numerous  churches, 
and  public  buildings,  with  splendid  stores  and  shops,  betoken 
a  place  of  growing  prosperity.  Toronto  is  the  outlet  of  a  good 
agricultural  country,  and,  should  a  ship  canal  be  made  here  to 
connect  with  Lake  Huron  by  the  Georgian  Bay,  the  business 
of  this  flourishing  city  as  a  port  of  transit  would  be  materially 
augmented.  By  means  of  the  Grand  Trunk  and  Great  Western 
Kailways  it  already  possesses  every  facility  for  communication 
by  land. 

The  drive  towards  Hamilton  along  the  shore  of  the  lake, 
which  lay  quite  smooth  and  calm,  was  beautiful.  The  country 
is  about  half  cleared,  a  heavy  wheat  soil,  on  which  the  new- 


22 


TORONTO — HAMILTON. 


If. 


sown  wheat  fields  were  all  carefully  water-furrowed.  In  some 
places  the  land  was  a  stiff  red  clay,  but  most  of  it  a  heavy 
brown  clay  loam.  There  seemed  to  be  very  little  Indian  corn, 
and  the  grass  on  the  pastures  was  either  bad,  or  quite  eaten 
off,  or  scorched  up. 

As  the  line  nears  Hamilton  we  pass  by  a  wooden  bridge 
over  a  chasm,  which  by  the  breaking  of  the  bridge  was  the  scene 
of  a  frightful  railway  accident  some  time  ago.  This  town  is 
placed  on  a  bay  at  the  head  of  Lake  Ontario,  from  the  waves 
of  which  the  harbour  is  protected,  like  Toronto,  by  a  natural 
breakwater.  There  are  several  handsome  streets  and  houses 
in  the  town,  and  the  villas  in  the  neighbourhood  are  as  substan- 
tial and  elegant  as  those  in  the  vicinity  of  our  best  towns  in 
this  country,  with  shrubberies,  lawns,  and  greenhouses  kept  in 
the  nicest  order.  From  Hamilton  to  Niagara  the  railway  runs 
along  a  broad  tract  of  low  country,  stretching  from  a  range  of 
high  tableland  on  the  right  to  the  sliores  of  the  Lake.  At  all 
points  where  we  stopped  for  an  excnrsion  into  the  country, 
there  was  a  uniform  complaint  among  the  Irish  labourers  of  low 
wages  and  want  of  employment,  and  the  wheat  crop  in  this 
part  of  the  country  had  proved  a  very  short  one. 


,'i 

w 


M    ■ 
J;*     ' 

f  i 


LETTER    II, 


Falb  if  ^.  gara.— Canada  WeBt.— Mode  of  Farming.— Short  Wheat  Crop.— 
A  7erage  Produce.— London.— Price  of  Land.— Climate.— Dlseasea  produced 
uv  Malaria.— Rich  Landi  more  lubjeot  to  them  than  ];>oor.— Propoied  Route  to 
Bntiah  Columbia.— Red  River  and  the  Valley  of  the  Saakatchewan.— The 
Hudson  Bay  Territory.— Alleged  Fertility  of  the  Country.— Failure  of  tba 
Selkirk  Settlement.— Plague  of  Orasshoppera.— Mr.  Kitaon'a  Account  ot  the 
Settlement  on  Red  River.— Policy  of  Abandoning  that  Country  to  Car^ada.— 
Over-estimate  of  its  Value. 


Towards  eveiiis^  the  train  landed  us  at  Niagara,  but  we 
caught  no  sign,  either  by  sound  or  sight,  of  the  great  Falls  till 
we  found  ourselves  seemingly  close  in  front  of  them  at  the  Clif- 
ton  House  Hotel.  The  doors  and  windows  of  this  hotel  shake 
day  and  night,  though  it  is  really  a  mile  distant  from  the  Falls, 
and  the  sound  seems  no  greater  when  you  are  close  beside  them 
than  it  is  here.  Following  Sidney  Smith's  example  at  Wood- 
houselee,  I  pinned  or  wedged  my  door  and  window  with  com- 
plete success,  then  took  a  moonlight  view  of  the  Falls,  during 
which  we  had  the  good  fortune  to  see  a  lunar  rainbow.  After 
a  two-mile  walk  to  the  suspension  bridge,  I  regret  to  be  obliged 
to  confess  that  my  first  impression  was  one  of  disappointment. 
The  country  is  tame  and  flat  though  wooded,  and  the  river 
leaps  from  this  flat  into  a  deep  gorge,  on  which  you  look  down, 
instead  of  finding  yourself  in  a  valley /row  which  you  might 
look  up.  During  the  night  you  are  roused  by  a  sound  like  a 
fearful  storm,  but  it  continually  changes,  and  presently  you 
might  imagine  that  you  were  close  to  1000  railway  engines 
blowing  off  their  steam.  How  eagerly  one  springs  up  to  get 
the  first  view  in  the  morning  sun ! 


m 


24 


NIAGAEA. 


h 

P  ''■  ■ 


We  were  fortunate  in  making  the  acquaintance  of  Mr. 
Church,  the  Turner  of  America,  whose  great  picture  of  Niagara 
was  not  long  ago  exhibited  in  London.     He  was  still  here, 
studying  and  sketching  this  ever-changing  scene.     With  him 
as  our  guide  we  soon  discovered  cause  for  wonder  and  admira- 
tion.   Descending  hy  a  steep  path  to  the  bed  of  the  river,  we 
cross  in  a  ferry-boat  below  the  Falls,  and  are  drawn  up  an  in- 
clined plane  in  a  tunnel  nearly  200  feet  to  the  top,  on  the 
American  side.     Here,  from  the  bent  branch  of 'a  cedar  liter- 
ally hanging  over  the  precipice,  we  obtained  a  view  along  the 
entire  face  both  of  the  American  and  Horse  Shoe  Falls.    We 
next  crossed  a  little  neck  of  land  which  brought  us  to  the  edge 
of  the  river  above  the  Fall,  and  within  a  few  feet  of  the  brink, — • 
the  water  here  running  so  clear  and  shallow  that  a  chUd  might 
wade  in  it  with  safety.     Some  hundred  yards  further  up  we 
pass  by  a  bridge  to  Goat  Island,  a  picturesque  spot,  covered 
with  natural  wood  some  seventy  acres  in  extent,  which  divides 
the  Falls.     Crossing  this  island  we  find  ourselves  in  presence 
of  the  grand  arm  of  the  river,  where  the  rushing  waters,  surg- 
ing six  to  ten  feet  high,  are  pouring  towards  the  Horse  Shoe 
Fall.    We  pass  by  a  frail  wooden  bridge  to  a  tower  built  in  the 
water,  and  close  to  the  edge  of  the  precipice.     This  we  ascend, 
and  there,  close  below  and  before  us,  rushing  on  now  as  it  has 
done  every  day  and  night  for  6000  years,  was  this  tumultuous 
sea.    Its  chief  grandeur  is  the  central  mass  of  green  solid  water, 
which  glides  unbroken  over  the  Fall,  ten  thousand  tons  a  min- 
ute, into  the  horrible  abyss,  160  feet  below.     Noise  there  is 
enough,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  come  from  that  smooth  tongue 
of  water  which  in  a  moment  would  suck  into  destruction  the 
Great  Ship  herself.     A  magnificent  rainbow  spanned  a  great 
part  of  the  gorge  below  the  Fall,  and,  for  some  hundred  yards, 
the  surface,  clear  of  the  spray  which  rises  in  front,  is  like  one 
mass  of  churning  cream.     Recrossing  Goat  Island  we  had  a 


UNDER  THE  PALL. 


25 


second  view  of  the  American  Fall,  which  has  little  of  the  gran- 
deur of  the  Canadian  side,  the  body  of  water  being  smaller  and 
more  shallow.  There  is  here  a  little  islet,  connected  with  Goat 
Island  by  a  slight  foot-bridge  to  which  there  is  attached  a  fear- 
ful story.  A  foolish  man  carrying  his  child  across  the  bridge, 
held  it  by  way  of  joke  over  the  torrent ;  in  its  horror  the  child 
struggled  and  fell  out  of  his  arms.  He  sprang  after  it,  and  in 
one  moment  both  were  in  the  abyss. 

Eeturning  to  the  Canadian  side  of  the  river,  I  was  conduct- 
ed down  a  very  long  stair  to  the  edge  of  the  water,  and  thence 
by  a  narrow  footpath  under  the  Table  rock  to  the  foot  of  the  Fall, 
behind  which,  on  a  footpath  of  shingle  and  rock,  slanting  out- 
wards to  the  horrible  cauldron^  we  stand  and  look  through  the 
Fall,  which  is  pouring  out  above,  but  clear  of  us  in  front.  We 
then  follow  the  guide  a  little  further.  A  very  few  yards  bring 
us  to  a  point  of  rock  beyond  which  there  is  nothing  but  sheer 
precipice.  There  is  said  to  be  no  danger,  but  I  was  almost 
smothered  with  the  spray,  faint  for  want  of  breath  from  the  ab- 
solute loss  of  air  in  the  thick  flying  foam.  At  this  point  it  is 
hardly  safe  to  turn  with  the  face  towards  the  Fall,  and  a  very 
abort  stay  here  will  satisfy  the  most  curious.  Getting  back  to 
a  more  secure  position,  we  stood  for  some  time  watching  the  sun 
as  now  and  then  he  was  to  be  seen  through  a  momentary  thin- 
ness or  opening  in  the  falling  water. 

On  reaching  the  top  of  the  bank,  we  drove  up  the  Canadian 
side  to  view  the  rapids,  which  are  perhaps  ec[ual  in  grandeur  to 
any  part  of  the  scene.  Standing  by  the  riv^er  side  and  looking 
up  the  stream,  we  see  nothing  whatever  between  the  horizon 
and  ourselves  but  the  great  river  roaring  and  leaping  down, 
miles  broad  .apparently,  though  that  is  an  illusion ;  but  there  it 
comes  just  as  if  we  had  got  to  the  edge  of  the  world  and  saw 
the  sea  come  leaping  down  the  gap.  The  descent,  which  is 
here  sixty  feet  in  a  mile,  aids  the  illusion,  for  the  vision  is  cir- 
2 


■  nt 


:  H 


>K 


26 


THE  AEMST'S  point  OP  VIEW. 


cumscribed  and  the  eye  cannot  reacli  far  up  the  river.  This  is 
a  scene  which  one  is  loath  to  leave,  but  we  must  on  to  the  hot 
sulphur  spring,  where  the  guardian,  an  old  Scotchman,  lights 
the  inflammable  gas  for  our  inspection,  and  seems  literally  to 
set  the  water  on  fire.  Smell  enough,  and  of  a  similar  kind, 
comes  from  the  Thames  in  hot  weather ;  so  if  the  guardians  of 
that  not  very  crystal  stream  carry  their  systems  too  far,  they 
may  see  the  Thames  on  fire  some  day  yet.  When  our  guide 
had  shown  us  all,  I  asked  him  about  the  farming  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood. He  was  from  Aberdeenshire,  and  had  been  thirty 
years  here.  "  Oh,  man,"  said  he,  "  they're  meeserable  farmers. 
It  would  break  your  heart  to  see  how  they  just  scart  the  grun'. 
It's  no  very  guid  ony  way,  but  they  dinna  gie't  a  chance." 

A  few  days  may  be  spent  with  great  satisfaction  in  wan- 
dering about  Niagara,  the  grandeur  and  beauty  of  which  seem 
to  increase  from  day  to  day.  Mr.  Church  has  fallen  in  love 
with  the  Falls.  He  has  made  them  his  mistress,  and  morning 
noon  and  night  he  watches  her  in  every  varying  mood  and 
loves  her  in  them  all.  At  the  dizzy  edge  of  the  Table-rock  he 
will  sit  sketching  all  day  with  his  easel  before  him,  and,  to  the 
terror  of  the  whole  neighbourhood  which  lost  sight  of  them  for 
twenty  minutes,  he  kept  the  little  steam-boat,  which  plies  be- 
low the  Falls,  all  that  time  battling  with  full  steam,  to  keep 
her  nose  in  the  spray  in  the  very  front  of  the  Great  Fall,  whilst 
he  studied  the  efiect  from  this  new  position.  If  a  passion  for 
his  subject  can  secure  success  to  an  accomplished  artist,  we  may 
confidently  hope  that  Mr.  Church's  second  picture  of  Niagara 
will  even  exceed  the  beauty  and  fidelity  of  the  first. 

Returning  by  railway  to  Hamilton,  I  continued  my  jour- 
ney through  Canada  West.  The  country  to  Dundas,  and  on- 
wards for  forty  miles  to  Paris,  is  undulating,  and  seemed  an 
easier  and  more  fertile  soil.  Very  little  of  it  is  wholly  cleared, 
certainly  more  than  half  is  still  unbroken  forest.     But  the 


CANADA  WEST. 


27 


er.  This  is 
1  to  the  hot 
man,  lights 
literally  to 
milar  kind, 
uardians  of 

0  far,  they 

1  our  guide 
the  neigh- 
)een  thirty 
e  farmers, 
the  grun*. 
ance." 

in  wan- 
lich  seem 
3n  in  love 
morning 
aood  and 
e-rock  he 
»d,  to  the 
them  for 
plies  be- 
to  keep 
%  whilst 
3sion  for 
we  may 
N^iagara 


trees  are  immensely  tall,  and  show  the  rapid  growth  which 
only  a  fertile  soil  could  produce.  Though  this  district  is  quite 
within  the  limit  of  the  profitable  culture  of  Indian  corn,  a 
small  proportion  only  of  the  land  seems  to  be  occupied  by  that 
crop.  Its  great  value  is  everywhere  admitted,  but  on  this  de- 
scription of  soil  its  cultivation  demands  too  much  labour.  The 
last  grain  crop  can  hardly  have  been  great,  for  in  very  few 
instances  indeed  are  any  ricks  to  be  seen  outside  the  barns, 
and  they  are  not  capacious  enough  to  contain  large  crops. 
There  has  been,  in  fact,  a  very  short  crop  in  Western  Canada. 
The  young  wheat  is  already  green,  as  it  is  found  necessary  to 
sow  very  early  in  order  to  have  the  plant  strongly  rooted  be- 
fore frost  sets  in.  On  the  best  land  wheat  and  clover  are  often 
taken  in  alternate  succession,  the  clover  being  ploughed  down  in 
the  hot  summer  weather,  when  the  weeds  are  easily  and  cheaply 
destroyed,  while  the  clover  gives  condition  to  the  land  for  the 
wheat  crop.  All  agricultural  operations  in  this  country  are  ne- 
cessarily governed  by  the  high  price  of  labour.  The  principle 
which  guides  the  American  farmer  is  to  take  the  most  paying 
crop  which  can  be  grown  at  the  least  cost  of  labour.  Being  the 
owner  of  the  soil,  he  has  no  landlord  to  consult  as  to  its  man- 
agement, and  he  regulates  his  cropping  by  the  cost  of  labour 
and  the  value  of  the  produce  most  in  demand.  In  every  coun- 
try men  differ  in  their  ideas  on  these  points,  and  here  as  else- 
where some  fanners  find  it  most  profitable  to  have  their  land 
chiefly  under  tillage,  while  others  in  the  same  locality  think 
they  realise  a  larger  net  balance  from  stock  farming.  The 
wheat  crop  on  the  best  soils  yields  here  from  eighteen  to  thirty 
bushels  an  acre,  and  year  old  South  Down  sheep,  where  well 
managed,  weigh  20  lbs.  a  quarter. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  money  panic  of  last  autumn  the 
value  of  land  in  the  best  parts  of  Canada  West  had  been  for 
several  years  constantly  rising.     There  was  now  a  complete 


28 


PEODUCB  AND  PEICE  OP  LAND. 


lull,  and  prices  were  on  the  decline.  Great  hopes  had  been 
built  on  the  opening  up  of  the  country  by  the  two  nearly 
parallel  lines  of  railway,  which,  at  different  points,  traverse 
Canada  West,  and  connect  Michigan  with  Lake  Ontario. 
These  were  realised  more  rapidly  than  could  have  been  ex- 
pected, aided  by  the  high  prices  caused  by  a  series  of  short 
crops  in  Europe,  which  stimulated  production  immensely  for  a 
time,  and  led  to  wild  speculations  in  land.  I  have  instances 
before  me  of  farms  in  this  part  of  Canada,  only  partially  clear- 
ed, which  then  sold  at  15^.  an  acre,  and  are  now  hardly  worth 
the  half  of  that  money.  A  light  sandy  loam  of  good  quality, 
only  half  cleared,  is  still  valued  at  from  71.  to  8/.  an  acre.  It 
is  this  comparatively  high  price  of  land,  in  addition  to  the 
cost  of  clearing  off  the  timber,  that  forces  the  emigrant  west- 
wards to  a  country  where  better  soil,  with  equal  facilities  of 
transport,  can  be  bought  for  less  than  the  mere  cost  of  clearing 
this  of  its  timber. 

Some  fifty  miles  farther  bring  us  to  London,  a  very  rising 
and  flourishing  town,  overlooking  the  broad  wooded  valley  of 
the  Thames.  The  soil  here  is  a  light  loam,  very  favourable  to 
the  production  of  fruit  and  vegetables,  and  of  easy  cultivation. 
Onwards  to  Thamesville,  Bothwell,  and  Chatham,  the  land 
seemed  less  valuable,  and  three-fourths  of  it  still  in  natural 
forest.  As  we  near  the  lake,  and  the  St.  Clair  Kiver,  it  be- 
comes marshy.  There  seemed  no  great  source  here  for  much 
local  traflSc  for  a  railway,  and  yet  the  Great  "Western  cars 
were  crowded,  but  chiefly  with  through  passengers  to  Detroit 
and  the  west. 

The  climate  of  Canada  West  is  more  favourable  to  agri- 
culture than  that  of  Canada  East,  the  winters  being  shorter 
and  not  so  severe.  But  Lower  Canada  is  more  free  from  fever 
and  ague.  The  diseases  caused  by  malaria,  (which  is  the  most 
fruitful  origin  of  disease  in  North  America)  become  much  less 


^i 


FEYEB  AXD  AGUE. 


29 


important  or  fail  altogether  in  a  poor  cold  country,  for  they 
are  the  product  of  rank  vegetation  on  a  rich  soil,  nourished 
by  extreme  heat  and  humidity.  In  proportion  to  the  natural 
capacity  of  the  country  in  North  America  to  maintain  a  large 
population  is  its  greater  liability  to  such  disorders.  The  rich 
alluvial  soils  on  the  river  sides,  whether  in  Canada  or  the 
United  States,  south  of  45°  of  latitude,  are  equally  subject  to 
fever  and  ague,  more  or  less  intensified  by  the  greater  heat 
and  humidity  of  the  summer.  The  settler  may  make  his 
choice  with  perfect  certainty  of  the  result.  The  poor  soil,  with 
niggard  vegetation  and  harsh  climate,  is  exempt  from  malari- 
ous fever,  though  favourable  to  colds  and  diseases  of  the  respi- 
ratory organs.  The  rich  and  abundantly  productive  soil,  where 
nature  helps  man  in  every  way  to  make  his  labour  profitable, 
nourishes  also  that  exuberance  of  vegetation  the  decay  of  which 
produces  malaria.  But  as  these  rich  countries  become  popu- 
lous the  excess  of  vegetation  disappears,  and  malaria  dimin- 
ishes. That  has  been  the  uniform  experience  of  the  Eastern 
States  of  America,  as  also  of  our  own  rich  flats  on  the  east  of 
England.  Certain  it  is  that,  notwithstanding  malaria  and  its 
consequences  population  flocks  towards  the  riciier  territory,  and 
increases  more  rapidly  in  it.  Canada  "West  is  richer  than 
Canada  East,  and  it  is  more  populous ;  but  there  is  a  richer 
territory  still  farther  west  where  labour  is  yet  more  productive, 
and,  though  in  the  present  state  of  the  country  the  risk  of 
health  is  greater,  it  is  ten  times  more  populous,  for  men  push 
on  to  the  land  in  which  they  can  most  quickly  and  easily  earn 
an  independence. 

Before  leaving  Canada  and  entering  the  United  States  at 
Detroit,  it  may  be  well  to  notice  here  a  subject  much  agitated 
in  the  province  at  present,  and  also  of  national  importance, 
viz.,  the  opening  of  a  direct  route  through  the  British  territory 
between  Canada  and  the  Pacific.     A  company  with  most  re- 


30 


BBinSH  BOUTS  TO  THE  PACIFIC. 


Ir 


spectable  colonial  names  is  being  organised  to  place  a  continu- 
ous boat  and  portage  communication  between  Lake  Superior 
and  the  eastern  side  of  tlie  Kocky  Mountains.  There  are  said 
to  be  two  practicable  routes,  one  exclusively  through  British 
territory,  conunencing  at  Pigeon  River  on  Lake  Superior,  thence 
to  Red  River  at  Fort  Garry,  the  British  settlement  there, — 
down  the  Red  River  to  Lake  "Winnipeg, — 250  miles  through 
that  lake  to  its  northern  extremity,  and  finally  up  the  south 
branch  of  the  Saskatchewan  River,  (which  in  volume  and 
depth  is  said  to  be  equal  to  the  Mississippi  above  Dubuque,) 
and  is  navigable  for  a  distance,  measured  as  the  crow  flies,  of 
700  miles,  to  a  point  near  the  eastern  base  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  This  is  said  to  be  only  eight  days'  journey  from 
the  gold  districts  of  British  Columbia.  The  other  route  be- 
gins at  St.  Paul's,  thence  through  the  Prairie,  250  miles,  to 
Graham's  Fort  on  the  Red  River,  from  which  point  the  stream 
is  said  to  be  navigable  for  steam-boats  down  to  the  British  set- 
tlements at  Fort  Garry,  where  the  two  routes  would  join. 

Hitherto  the  vast  territory  proposed  to  be  opened  up  by 
this  route  has  been  represented  to  be  unsuited  by  climate  for 
settlement,  and  capable  of  producing  only  furs  and  hides.  It 
has  been  so  used  by  the  Hudson's  Bay  and  Korth  West  Com- 
panies ever  since  the  French  were  expelled  from  Canada.  And 
the  urgent  efforts  of  Lord  Selkirk,  so  early  as  1805,  to  colon- 
ise a  tract  which,  from  his  personal  knowledge,  he  estimated 
as  capable  of  supporting  thirty  millions  of  people,  were,  by  a 
combination  of  obstructions  and  disasters,  finally  extinguished 
in  favour  of  the  fur  trade.  More  recent  investigation  has 
shown  that  the  climate  is  not  unfavourable  to  settlement,  the 
summer  temperature  on  the  south  branch  of  the  Saskatchewan 
being  the  same  as  in  the  fertile  region  of  northern  Dlinois  and 
southern  Wisconsin,  while  the  buffalo  winters  in  the  belts  of 
woodland  on  these  northern  rivers  as  safely  as  in  the  latitude 


RED  EIVER  AND  SASKATCHEWAN. 


8f 


of  St.  Paul's.  It  is  said  that  all  the  grains  of  the  cool  temper- 
ate latitudes  can  be  produced  abundantly.  It  is  the  great  resort 
of  the  buflfalo  herds,  the  presence  of  which  in  "ast  numbers 
suflBciently  attests  the  plentiful  supply  of  grass  on  the  plains 
at  all  seasons.  Those  who  take  perhaps  a  sanguine  view  of  the 
subject,  assert  that  there  is  a  country  here  four  times  the  size 
of  the  British  Islands,  with  a  fertile  soil,  navigable  rivers,  and 
abundance  of  coal,  now  almost  wholly  unoccupied,  which  is 
perfectly  adapted  to  settlement.  They  compare  the  state  of 
this  unnoticed  territory  to  that  of  Europe  at  the  period  of  the 
earliest  Koman  expansion,  when  Gaul,  Scandinavia,  and  Brit- 
ain were  regarded  as  inhospitable  regions  fit  only  for  barba- 
rians, and  anticipate  an  early  rush  of  colonists  from  the  old 
country  to  seize  upon  its  natural  advantages. 

The  evidence  is  sufficiently  strong  to  show  that  this  vast 
region  ought  no  longer  to  be  left  unknown  and  unexamined. 
An  exploring  party  is  said  to  have  already  visited  the  sources 
of  the  south  Saskatchewan,  and  there  must  be  abundance 
of  information  regarding  the  whole  territory  in  the  possession 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  The  descendants  of  the  first 
colony,  planted  by  Lord  Selkirk  in  1812,  still  maintain  their 
ground  on  the  Red  Eiver,  but  the  vicissitudes  they  have  ex- 
perienced tend  to  modify  the  sanguine  expectations,  entertain- 
ed by  some,  of  the  future  progress  of  this  country.  Passing 
over  their  early  years  of  contention  with  the  North  West  Com- 
pany, we  find  them  in  1818  visited  by  a  plague  of  grasshoppers, 
which  nearly  destroyed  their  crops.  In  the  following  year  the 
destruction  was  complete.  An  eye-witness  says  that  these  in- 
sects were  produced  in  masses,  two,  three,  or  four  inches  in 
depth.  The  water  was  infected  with  them.  Along  the  river 
they  were  to  be  found  in  heaps  like  sea-weed,  and  might  be 
shovelled  with  a  spade.  Every  vegetable  substance  was  either 
eaten  up  or  stripped  to  the  stalk.     The  colonists  supported 


32 


MR.  KITSON'S  OPINION 


m 


themselves  during  the  winter  by  hunting;  and  in  the  following 
spring,  by  unheard-of  exertion,  succeeded  in  bringing  seed 
from  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  From  this  time  to  1826 
they  were  unharmed,  but  in  that  year  and  1852  their  crops 
were  submerged  by  river  floods.  The  grasshoppers  again  re- 
turned in  1856,  were  most  destructive  to  the  crops  in  1857, 
and  threatened  destruction  in  1858,  but  were  providentially 
stayed.  Notwithstanding  these  repeated  calamities,  and  though 
they  have  no  market  for  their  produce  beyond  a  small  demand 
by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  the  Selkirk  settlement  is  in  a 
flourishing  condition. 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  at  St.  Paul's,  Mr.  Kitson, 
the  mayor  of  that  city,  a  man  of  great  intelligence,  who  has 
been  during  the  last  fourteen  years  engaged  in  the  fur  trade 
at  Pembina,  on  the  American  side  of  the  boundary  line  at 
Eed  Eiver.  He  has  been  at  the  British  settlement  during  all 
seasons  of  the  year,  and  knows  no  country  in  which  the  peo- 
ple live  such  an  abundant  and  easy  life.  Their  farms  extend 
for  thirty  miles  along  the  river.  With  very  little  labour  they 
produce  every  thing  that  they  require.  The  rivers  and  lakes 
swarm  with  fish,  and  the  land  has  an  abundance  of  game. 
But  the  summer  is  short  and  the  winter  long.  The  chief  dan- 
ger in  the  climate  arises  from  early  frost,  which  generally 
comes  in  September,  but  sometimes  in  August,  and  prevents 
the  corn  from  ripening.  The  crops,  however,  are  rarely  lost 
from  this  cause.  The  grasshoppers  are  more  to  be  feared. 
But  the  population,  now  about  4,000,  increases.  The  peo- 
ple are  chiefly  Scotch  and  French  Canadians.  Mr.  Kitson 
had  never  been  on  the  Saskatchewan,  but  had  often  heard 
the  valley  described  as  very  fertile.  The  soil  in  all  the  val- 
leys he  had  ever  seen  in  that  country  is  a  rich  black  loam, 
and  near  the  rivers  there  is  plenty  of  timber.  Cultivation  has 
been  very  little  tried,  as  the  Indians  here  live  on  game  and 


OP  THE  COUNTEY. 


meat  alone.  They  raise  no  corn  and  eat  none.  Their  daily 
food  in  all  seasons  is  meat,  the  daily  rations  for  a  man  being 
7  lbs.,  and  for  a  woman,  5  lbs.  But,  while  Mr.  Kitson  be- 
lieved that  the  valley  of  this  river  enjoys  a  milder  winter  cli- 
mate than  Montreal,  he  is  doubtful  whether  Indian  corn  would 
ripen  in  it  any  more  than  it  does  on  the  Eed  River,  which  is 
considerably  farther  south,  and  where  it  is  only  grown  as  a 
garden  plant.  He  thinks  the  route  this  way,  and  over  the 
Rocky  Mountains  to  Frazer's  River  is  quite  practicable.  Indeed 
the  country,  as  far  as  the  Rocky  Mountains,  is  said  to  be  so 
level  that  the  journe/  might  be  made  the  whole  way  in  a  car- 
riage. 

Nor  would  the  fur  trade  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  be 
materially  interfered  with  if  their  lease  of  this  valley  of  the 
Saskatchewan  and  the  Red  River  should  not  be  renewed.  They 
derive  all  their  best  furs  from  the  Mackenzie  River,  and  the 
vast  territory  to  the  north  and  east.  Buffalo  skins  are  their 
chief  produce  at  present  from  this  rich  tract  of  country,  and 
these  are  of  minor  importance. 

But  the  English  people  have  a  duty  to  perform  to  them- 
selves in  this  matter.  If  they  are  to  hand  over  to  Canada  the 
absolute  property  in  this  great  territory,  Canada  should  be 
made  to  pay  all  claims  for  compensation  to  which  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company  may  be  entitled.  Why  should  we  be  taxed  for 
an  object  in  which  they  are  chiefly  interested  1  If  the  terri- 
tory is  not  worth  more  than  the  sum  to  be  paid  as  compensa- 
tion, why  take  it  from  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  at  all? 
Speaking  in  the  interest  of  England  alone,  it  seems  to  me  that 
it  is  better  for  us  to  have  an  English  Company  sharing  among 
themselves  in  this  country  the  surplus  profits  of  that  region, 
than  that  we  should  pay  a  large  sum  in  compensation  merely 
for  the  pleasure  of  transferring  the  property  so  acquired  to 
Canada.  The  Canadians  are  the  best  judges  of  its  value,  and 
2* 


m 


■•isr 


84 


TOO  DISTANT  FOB  SETTLEMEKTT. 


iLo  most  capable  of  developing  it.  If  it  turns  out  to  be  so 
rich  as  it  has  been  represented,  it  will  be  their  interest  to  en- 
courage emigration  to  it.  And  it  is  equally  their  interest  with 
ours  to  open  a  route  to  the  Pacific,  for  the  profits  on  the  transit 
will  be  theirs,  and  the  more  the  country  becomes  known  and 
accessible,  the  more  speedily  wiU  it  add  to  the  resources  and 
wealth  of  the  province. 

It  is  indeed  hardly  conceivable  that  a  country  so  far  in 
the  interior  can  be  profitably  settled,  so  long  as  there  is  abund- 
ance of  better  prairie  land  to  be  found  1,000  miles  nearer 
home.  And  there  is  a  diflSculty  which  has  not  been  adverted 
to,  the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  a  very  warlike  race  here,  who 
have  hitherto  baffled  all  attempts  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany to  form  agricultural  settlements. 


LETTER   III. 


Michigan.— Ferry  Stenmer.— Detroit.— State  Agricultural  Show.— Railway  Hints 
for  Home,  to  Prevent  Dust,  and  communicate  with  Driver  Shelter  for  Engine 
Driver.— lUinolB.— Extent  of  the  Rich  Valley  of  the  Upper  MiBK.lPsippl.— 
Chicago.— Its  wonderful  Progress.- Railway  Investments.- Development  too 
rapid.— Encouraged  by  high  Prices  of  Agricultural  Produce.— Money  Panic 
succeeded  by  Failure  of  Crops,  and  unhealthy  Season.- Immigration  sus- 
pended.—Capacity  of  Country-  for  rapid  Improvement.— View  of  the  State  of 
Illinois  on  a  Line  of  Seven  Hundred  Miles.— Settlers  from  Vermont.- Galena. 
— Dunlelth. 


At  Windsor  we  crossed  the  American  boundary  line  to  Detroit, 
in  the  State  of  Michigan,  by  the  St.  Clair  River,  a  deep  crys- 
tal stream,  nearly  a  mile  broad,  flowing  with  a  gentle  current 
of  three  miles  an  hour.  This  is  the  Bosphorus  of  North  Am- 
erica, by  which  the  navigation  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the 
Lov/er  Lakes  finds  access  to  the  three  great  inland  seas  of  this 
continent.  The  ferry-steamer  by  which  we  crossed  was  large 
enough  to  accommodate  600  or  800  passengers  with  all  u  r 
baggage,  and,  in  the  saloon  on  the  upper-deck,  tables  were 
spread  for  supper,  of  which  probably  100  partook.  This  forms 
a  convenient  resting  and  refreshment  room  for  through  passen- 
gers, who  purpose  continuing  their  westward  journey  by  the 
trains  ready  to  start  from  the  other  side. 

Detroit  is  a  very  handsome  town,  finely  situated  on  the 
river.  It  was  laid  out  by  a  mathematical  genius,  who  has 
succeeded  in  producing  a  very  elegant,  spacious,  and  con- 
veniently arranged  town.  The  old  French  farmers,  whose 
original  settlements  stretched  in  long  narrow  strips  back  from 
the  river,  have  all  become  extremely  wealthy  by  the  sale  of 


m 


se 


MICHIGAN  STATE  FAIB. 


their  little  estates,  >vliich  are  now  converted  into  the  most  valu- 
able town  lots. 

The  Michigan  State  Agricultural  Fair  was  about  to  be  held. 
The  show  ground  was  enclosed  and  subdivided  much  in  the  same 
manner  as  at  the  agricultural  shows  in  England.  Very  taste- 
fully decorated  booths  wepe  erected  for  the  exhibition  of  flowers, 
and  also  of  the  fish  which  are  caught  or  bred  within  the  limits 
of  this  State,  and  which  were  exhibited  in  miaiature  ponds  as 
at  the  great  show  at  Paris,  in  1856.  The  whole  show  ground 
was  traversed  by  a  wide  carriage  drive,  which  was  to  be  used 
as  a  race-course  for  the  trial  of  trotting  horses,  and  for  matches 
by  lady  equestrians,  probably  the  most  attractive  feature  of  all 
Wee^crn  State  fairs.  There  were  a  few  good  short-horns  in 
the  yard,  but  the  stock  was  chiefly  of  an  inferior  mixed  breed. 
The  best  sheep  are  of  the  merino  breed,  and  the  wool  produced 
in  this  State  is  reckoned  good. 

As  I  passed  very  rapidly  through  the  State  of  Michigan, 
the  line  traversing  a  partially  cleared  country,  the  soil  rather 
sandy,  but  picturesque,  undulating  and  well  watered  by  clear 
streams,  I  mention  only  a  few  points  of  practical  interest.  The 
first  is  in  reference  to  railway  comfort.  Though  the  weather 
was  extremely  dry,  and  we  travelled  with  open  windows  over 
280  miles  of  dusty  country  at  good  speed,  no  passenger  was 
annoyed  with  dust.  A  simple  contrivance  is  adopted  on  this 
line  which,  in  dusty  weather,  should  be  introduced  into  Eng- 
land. A  thick  canvass  cover  is  stretched  on  a  frame  along  the 
bottom  of  the  whole  train,  covering  the  wheels  and  all  the 
open  space  between  the  carriage  and  the  rail,  so  that  the  dust 
as  it  rises  is  carried  off  and  out  at  the  end  of  'the  train  in  a 
constant  stream.  There  is  no  practical  diflSculty  in  it,  and  the 
additional  comfort  to  passengers  is  so  great,  that  I  can  confi- 
dently commend  the  plan  to  railway  directors  in  this  country. 
Neither  do  the  Americans  seem  to  have  any  difficulty  in  carry- 


THE  OBEAT  PBURIE. 


87 


ing,  by  a  line  along  the  inside  of  the  roof,  a  continuous  com- 
munication from  every  carriage  to  the  engine  driver.  This  is 
in  general  use  both  in  Canada  and  the  States,  and  when  any 
change  took  place  in  the  arrangement  of  the  carriages,  the 
connection  of  the  signal  rope  was  eflfected  without  any  diffi- 
culty or  loss  of  time.  There  is  another  little  matter  which 
must  have  often  struck  railway  travellers  in  England ;  the  un- 
necessary exposure  to  weather  of  the  engine  driver  and  stoker. 
In  the  coldest,  wettest,  and  stormiest  nights  these  two  men, 
upon  whose  care  and  consciousness  the  safety  of  the  whole 
train  depends,  are  whisked  through  the  air  at  enormous  speed, 
without  any  shelter  or  cover  except  an  upright  piece  of  iron 
with  glass  in  it  to  protect  their  faces  when  looking  out  ahead. 
In  America,  these  useful  officials  have  a  roof  over  them,  glazed 
on  the  front  and  sides  and  open  behind,  within  which  they  can 
carry  on  most  of  their  duties,  without  unnecessary  exposure, 
and  from  which  they  can  keep  a  good  look  out,  without  being 
frost-bitten. 

It  was  night  when  the  train  reached  the  first  limit  of  the 
Great  Prairie  country,  for  a  glimpse  of  which  through  the  dark- 
ness, I  strove  anxiously  but  in  vain,  during  the  last  hour  of  the 
journey  to  Chicago. 

I  had  now  7each«id  the  new  capital  of  "that  Western 
World,"  as  "Washington  described  it,  which  Penn  prophesied 
would  yet  make  a  glorious  country.  The  valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi above  Cairo,  comprising  on  its  eastern  bank  Illinois 
and  Wisconsin,  and  on  the  west,  Missouri,  Iowa,  and  Minne- 
sota, embraces  probably  the  greatest  tract  of  fertile  land  on 
the  surface  of  the  globe.  In  total  extent  it  exceeds  England 
and  France  together,  with  the  kingdom  of  the  two  Sicilies 
thrown  into  the  bargain, — it  is  more  than  equal  to  Prussia  and 
the  whole  Austrian  empire,— even  Spain  and  Turkey  combined, 
would  require  the  territory  of  the  Ionian  Islands  to  place  them 


vi 


$8 


GBOWTH  OP  CHICAGO. 


on  a  par  with  it.  And  tliis  vast  territory  is  not  only  intersect- 
ed by  numerous  lines  of  railroad,  which  give  it  direct  access 
to  Montreal,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia,  but  on  the  north, 
by  means  of  the  lakes  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  on  the  south 
by  the  Mississippi  Eiver,  it  possesses  a  continuous  water  com- 
munication with  the  Atlantic. 

Nothing  can  illustrate  more  forcibly  the  vast  natural  abun- 
dance and  resources  of  this  splendid  country  than  the  history 
of  the  grain-trade  of  Chicago.  An  Indian  village  in  1820, 
this  place  has  become  a  great  city  with  upwards  of  120,000 
people,  with  wharves  and  granaries  for  nules  along  the  river 
canal  which  opens  into  Lake  Michigan,  and  with  streets,  pub- 
lic buildings,  churches,  and  private  dwellings  that  may  vie 
with  those  of  London  itself.  The  stores  on  the  principal 
streets  are  equal  in  size  and  architectural  elegance  to  the  new 
row  of  fine  buildings  which  leads  from  Cannon  Street  into  St. 
Paul's  Church  Yard.  There  are  numerous  stands  for  hackney- 
coaches,  and  various  lines  of  omnibuses  ply  along  the  street?. 
And  Chicago  is  actually  the  centre  of  more  miles  of  railway, 
completed  and  in  operation,  than  London.  Yet  it  is  only 
twenty  years  since  the  first  shipment  of  some  forty  bags  of 
wheat  was  made  from  it.  In  1837  its  exports  amounted  to 
about  100  bushels  of  grain,  in  1847  they  had  reached  2,243,- 
000  bushels,  and  in  1857  upwards  of  18,000,000  bushels. 
Chicago  and  all  its  wealth  are  in  fact  a  property  created  by 
the  profits  arising  in  the  mere  transference  from  hand  to  hand 
of  the  surplus  produce  of  but  a  small  part  of  this  wonderful 
country.  Looking  to  Illinois  alone,  of  which  Chicago  is  the 
commercial  cap'tal  and  outlet,  this  surplus,  great  though  it  is, 
is  capable  of  being  increased  tenfold,  as  only  one-tenth  of  the 
fertile  lands  of  this  State  are  believed  to  be  yet  brought  under 
cultivation. 

But  while  no  man  who  has  seen  the  country  can  entertain 


h 


EAILWAY  DEVELOPMENT. 


39 


a  doubt  of  its  vast  capability  of  further  development,  it  does 
not  surprise  me  that  capitalists  in  London  are  disappointed 
with  their  railway  investments  here.  In  England  we  make 
railways  to  facilitate  an  existing  traffic.  Elaborate  statistics 
are  furnished  to  show  the  extent  of  the  presert  business  of  the 
country  proposed  to  be  accommodated.  But  in  the  Western 
States  of  America  railways  are  made  for  hundreds  of  miles 
through  the  wilderness,  not  to  accommodate  but  to  create 
traffic.  You  may  often  travel  for  miles  through  the  open  prairie 
without  seeing  a  living  creature,  tUl  the  shrill  whistle  of  the 
engine  startles  a  solitary  sand-hUl  crane  or  a  covey  of  prairie 
fowl.  An  Englishman  cannot  at  first  imagine  the  possibility 
of  a  traffic  to  be  found  in  such  a  country,  adequate  to  the  sup- 
port of  a  railway.  But  the  experienced  American  knows  bet- 
ter the  rapid  rate  at  which  population  and  produce  increase  in 
a  rich  open  country,  to  wHich  access  is  made.  He  points  to 
the  fact  that  six  years  ago  there  were  only  forty  miles  of  rail- 
way in  Illinois,  the  earnings  of  which  fell  short  of  8000Z.  while 
last  y3ar  the  total  earnings  of  the  lines  centring  in  Chicago  ex- 
ceeded 3,700,000/. 

WhUe,  however,  this  is  the  fact,  there  cannot  be  a  doubt 
that  the  development  of  railway  accommodation  has  been  too 
rapid,  and  has  for  the  present  outrun  the  immediate  require- 
ments of  Illinois.  This  was  encouraged  by  a  state  of  circum- 
staQces  which  sanguine  speculators  did  not  perceive  to  be  ex- 
ceptional. A  series  of  short  crops  in  Europe,  coupled  with 
the  cessation  of  supplies  from  the  Black  Sea  during  the  Eus- 
sian  war,  caused  such  a  demand  for  the  produce  of  Western 
America,  as  at  once  doubled  the  price  of  wheat,  and  thus  ren- 
dered the  cultivation  of  prairie  lands  enormously  profitable. 
For  even  in  the  first  year  that  such  land  is  broken  up,  it  can 
be  successfully  cropped  with  wheat,  and  to  any  extent  for  which 
labour  can  be  procured.    The  temptation  to  settle  on  land,  the 


40 


ITS  SUDDEN  PALL, 


very  first  ciop  of  which  in  many  instances  realised  more  than 
double  the  cost  of  the  land  itself,  was  so  great,  that  men  with 
their  families  flocked  from  their  poor  farms  in  the  Eastern 
States,  and  Lower  Canada,  in  tens  of  thousands,  to  this  land 
of  promise.  In  two  years  the  export  of  wheat  rose  from  two  to 
nine  million  bushels.  The  trade  in  timber,  with  which  the  new 
farms  are  housed  and  fenced,  increased  in  like  proportion.  So 
sudden  and  extensive  a  demand  on  the  carrying  resources  of 
the  railways  led  many  of  them  to  provide  working  stock  ade- 
quate for  the  traflSc  of  a  fully  peopled  and  occupied  country, 
their  directors  hastily  concluding  that  this  sudden  prosperity 
would  be  continuous  and  progressive.  And  new  lines  were 
started  in  all  directions  by  local  land  speculators,  and  by  others 
who  were  not  slow  to  profit  by  the  flow  of  foreign  capital  which 
these  golden  prospects  naturally  directed  to  the  West.  The 
early  anticipations  of  increasing  trafiic,  upon  the  hope  of  which 
several  of  the  great  lines  had  raised  their  capital,  were  already 
more  than  realised ;  and  distant  shareholders  saw  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  sanguine  anticipations  of  directors,  who  themselves 
might  well  have  been  deceived  by  such  rapid  prosperity. 

In  this  inflated  state  the  money  panic  of  last  year  fell  upon 
them.  The  price  of  wheat  dropped  a  half,  the  farmers  refused 
to  sell,  the  rate  of  lake  freights  fell  one  half,  and  the  receipts 
and  traflSc  of  the  railways  began  to  show  a  similar  decline. 
The  reduced  prices  continued  during  winter  and  spring,  and 
were  followed  by  a  cause  of  even  greater  discouragement, — a 
season  of  extraordinary  humidity,  succeeded  by  sudden  and  ex- 
cessive heat,  the  effect  of  which  has  in  many  places  nearly  de- 
stroyed the  wheat  crop,  and  in  others  reduced  it  to  less  than 
half  of  an  average  produce.  So  general  was  this  unfavourable 
season  in  the  north-west,  that  its  effects  are  everywhere  visible. 
After  such  a  summer  the  autumn  has  naturally  proved  unhealthy, 
and  bad  crops  and  bodily  ailments  coming  together,  the  spirits 


BUT  HOPEFUL  FUTURE. 


41 


of  the  settlers  have  been  sadly  depressed.  Bad  news  travel 
fast.  Migration  from  the  Eastern  States  is  suspended,  and 
foreign  immigration  has  almost  ceased. 

It  does  not  seem  to  me  possible  that  there  can  be  any  real 
improvement  in  the  traffic  of  the  western  railways  before  next 
harvest.  The  chief  produce  of  the  country  which  at  present 
creates  traffic,  is  the  grain  trade.  There  is  but  one  crop  in 
the  year,  and  if  that  proves  a  partial  failure,  there  is  no  help 
but  to  wait  the  result  of  another  harvest.  Tut  nature  is  so 
bountiful  in  this  country,  and  so  small  is  the  proportion  of  land 
yet  under  cultivation,  that  when  the  tide  turns  we  may  look 
for  a  rapid  change.  If  with  not  more  than  a  tenth  of  the  good 
land  of  Illinois  under  a  rude  system  of  cultivation,  the  agricul- 
tural produce  exceeded  for  a  time  the  carrying  capacity  of  the 
railways,  what  may  it  not  become  as  the  country  becomes  peo- 
pled and  cultivated  ?  With  less  than  a  million  and  a  half  of 
people,  Illinois  aflForded  in  1857  an  amount  of  traffic  which  left 
a  profit  to  the  railways.  A  very  few  years,  at  her  average  rate 
of  progression,  will  double  that  population,  and  at  the  same 
time  double  her  agricultural  produce.  And  if  directors  and 
shareholders  will  in  the  meantime  act  with  prudence  and  pa- 
tience their  capital  will  soon  again  beconae  remunerative. 


m 


Before  examining  particular  localities  in  the  State,  I  was 
anxious  to  obtain  as  it  were  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  country ; 
such  a  general  impression  of  its  surface  as  would  enable  me  to 
select  points  for  special  inspection.  I  therefore  first  traversed 
the  entire  state  on  the  line  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railway,  from 
north-east  to  south,  and  from  south  to  north-west,  a  total  dis- 
tance of  about  700  miles.  The  State  of  Illinois  extends  from 
37°  to  42°  30'  north  latitude,  being  thus  nearly  the  same  length 
as  England,  but  further  south,  and  on  the  same  parallel  with 


u- 


42 


KANKAKEE. 


Spain  and  Italy.  This  first  journey  occupied  three  days,  the 
last  day  of  September,  and  the  first  and  second  of  October. 

Immediately  after  leaving  Chicago  we  enter  on  the  prairie, 
which,  near  Lake  Michigan,  and  for  the  first  twenty  miles,  is 
low  and  wet,  better  suited  for  pasture  and  dairying  than  the 
cultivation  of  corn.  The  country  then  begins  to  rise,  and  in 
the  next  twenty  miles  the  surface  becomes  dry  and  undulating ; 
the  soil  a  black  mould,  varying  in  depth  from  twelve  to  thirty 
inches,  and  resting  on  clay,  or  a  mixture  of  clay  and  gravel. 
From  this  point  to  the  Kankakee  Eiver,  the  first  large  stream 
we  cross,  the  prairie  is  a  series  of  long  and  gentle  undulations, 
less  abrupt  than  the  chalk  downs  of  England,  but  otherwise 
resembling  them  in  general  form  and  sweep.  The  character 
of  the  soil  is  very  uniform,  and  the  face  of  the  wide  open  coun- 
try is  sparsely  dotted  with  farm-houses.  Where  the  prairie  is 
unbroken,  it  is  covered  with  long  coarse  waving  grass,  from 
three  to  four  feet  high ;  and  in  the  hollows  the  grass  is  so  high 
as  to  hide  completely  any  cattle  that  may  be  grazing  there. 
Before  reaching  Kankakee  we  pass  through  a  settlement  of 
800  French  Canadians,  which  has  been  growing  for  the  last 
fifteen  years.  Each  settler  has  about  forty  acres,  and  their 
farms  are  laid  out  along  parallel  roads  at  right  angles  to  the 
railway.  They  exhibit  signs  of  careful  cultivation,  and  the  vil- 
lage and  church  of  the  colony  are  prettily  situated  near  the 
woods  on  the  river  bide. 

The  town  of  Kankakee  is  finely  situated  on  the  river,  fifty- 
six  miles  south  cf  Chicago.  Though  there  was  not  a  house  here 
five  years  asfo.  the  population  already  numbers  3,500,  with 
very  good  streets  and  shops,  the  centre  of  a  rich  agricultural 
district  affording  a  sufficient  traffic  for  a  special  daily 
train  in  and  out  from  Chicago.  The  land  behind  it  is  a  fertile, 
black,  sandy  loam,  lying  on  limestone,  excellent  for  oats  and 
potatoes,  and  productive  of  rich  grass. 


fjit 


UB6ANA. 


43 


Crossing  the  river,  whicli  is  a  broad  clear  stream,  as  wide 
as  the  Thames  at  Eichmond,  running  between  limestone  cliflfs 
clothed  with  timber,  the  road  traverses  a  continuous  prairie, 
more  or  less  dotted  with  houses  and  farms  for  the  next  seventy 
miles.  This  is  all  a  good  range  of  country,  and  though  the 
railroad  frequently  runs  in  a  perfectly  straight  line  for  many 
miles,  the  surface  while  rather  flat  is  very  seldom  a  dead  level, 
as  may  be  at  once  observed  by  the  varied  depth  of  the  cuttings 
and  embankments  all  along  the  line.  At  every  eight  or  ten 
miles  we  pass  a  station  round  each  of  which  a  town  is  rapidly 
springing  up,  very  often  with  a  steam  flour-mill  in  its  centre 
capable  of  manufacturing  150  barrels  of  flour  a  day. 

At  Urbana,  128  miles  south  of  Chicago,  there  is  a  flourish- 
ing town  and  station,  the  population  numbering  near  4000.  I 
saw  a  peach  plantation  in  this  neighbourhood  which  was  said 
to  be  in  some  seasons  extraordinarily  productive  and  remuner- 
ative. High  prices  are  paid  by  the  graziers  here  for  the  best 
breeds  of  cattle  to  improve  their  stock,  one  man  whom  I  met 
at  the  station  having  last  year  paid  500^.  for  a  short-horn  bull 
from  England.  The  soil  is  very  black  and  rich  looking.  Cen- 
erally,  even  on  the  flattest  prairie,  groves  of  timber  are  visible 
somewhere  on  the  horizon,  but  they  become  more  frequent  after 
we  pass  southward  of  Urbana,  and  until  Mattoon  is  reached, 
a  few  miles  from  which,  and  at  about  180  miles  south  of  Chi- 
cago, the  general  level  of  the  country  falls  about  eighty  feet. 
This  forms  the  termination  of  the  line  of  black  loamy  prairie, 
the  grey  wheat-soils  of  southern  Illinois  now  commencing.  The 
open  prairie  becomes  narrower,  and  the  woods,  which  are  every- 
where found  along  the  beds  of  the  rivers  and  streams,  seem  to 
be  within  little  more  than  a  mile  apart  from  each  other.  The 
soil  is  more  silicious  than  the  black  soil  of  the  upper  prairies, 
and  better  adapted  for  winter  wheat,  of  which  it  seldom  fails  to 
produce  good  crops  of  fine  quality.     It  is  also  considered  good 


m 


44 


SOUTHERN  GREY  PRAIRIE. 


■yi, 


for  grazing  cattle ;  but  is  not  so  prolific  of  Indian  corn  or  oats, 
nor  so  suitable  for  potatoes  or  sugar-beet,  all  of  which  grow 
very  successfully  on  the  black  prairie.  The  face  of  the  country, 
however,  is  more  picturesque,  and  the  woods  more  diversified, 
the  white  oak  growing  to  a  great  height.  There  is  also  abun- 
dance of  coal  and  building  stone  in  this  portion  of  the  State, 
and  the  winter  climate  is  occasionally  so  mild  that  in  favour- 
able seasons  cattle  can  live  the  whole  year  on  the  prairies,  with 
the  aid  of  little  or  no  fodder.  From  this  point  to  Centralia, 
where  the  junction  is  made  with  the  main  line  of  the  railroad, 
and  onwards  to  the  south  as  far  as  Desoto,  which  is  301  miles 
south  of  Chicago,  the  same  whitish  grey  prairie  soil  continues. 
The  country  near  Duquoin,  a  station  on  the  line,  is  all  under- 
laid with  coal,  in  seams  from  five  to  nine  feet  thick,  at  a  depth 
of  seventy  to  eighty  feet.  It  is  easily  wrought,  but  at  present 
there  is  not  much  sale  for  it,  as  the  country  is  very  thinly  set- 
tled, and  there  is  no  scarcivy  of  wood.  In  the  whole  country, 
for  nearly  the  last  150  miles,  there  was  scarcely  a  settler  four 
years  ago,  but  so  rapidly  has  settlement  followed  the  opening 
of  the  railway,  that  it  is  estimated  that  half  a  million  of  acres 
of  land  have  already  been  brought  under  cultivation  along  this 
part  of  the  road. 

From  Desoto  to  the  southern  boundary  of  the  State  the 
country  is  all  hills  and  hollows,  rocky  and  wooded,  with  good 
farms  interspersed.  The  climate  is  very  mild  in  winter  and 
hot  in  summer,  and  admits  of  the  growth  of  all  kinds  of  fruits 
and  tobacco.  It  produces  white  wheat  of  the  finest  quality, 
and  peaches  and  other  fruits  are  sent  in  large  quantities  for  the 
supply  of  the  market  at  Chicago.  This  is  one  of  the  earliest 
soils  in  the  Union  for  the  ripening  of  wheat,  the  new  crop  from 
which  may  be  sent  to  the  northern  and  eastern  markets  before 
their  own  harvests  are  ready. 


RICH   CENT^ctAL  I>BAIBIB. 


4ft 


I  now  retraced  my  course  by  tte  same  line  to  the  junction 
at  Centralia,  but  went  northwards  from  that  point  by  another 
line,  nearly  through  the  centre  of  the  State,  meeting  with  the 
same  characteristics  of  soil  as  were  noticed  on  the  journey  south- 
wards. Near  Tacusah  there  is  another  considerable  settlement 
of  French  Canadians  from  Lower  Canada.  On  again  reaching 
the  black  prairie,  after  having  been  for  some  time  accustomed 
to  the  whitish  grey  soil  of  the  southern  prairie,  it  seemed  to  me 
that  the  land  looked  richer  and  the  grass  greener.  But  we 
were  now  traversing  the  richest  part  of  Illinois,  and  for  100 
miles  north  of  Tacusah  the  whole  country  is  very  fine,  much  of 
it  settled  and  enclosed,  and  dotted  with  houses,  as  far  as  the 
eye  can  see.  The  cultivation  is  on  a  larger  and  more  regular 
scale,  the  Indian  corn  and  wheat  both  showing  evidence  of 
more  careful  management.  Hay  and  com  ricks  are  more  nu- 
merous ;  woodland  is  to  be  seen  in  all  directions,  and  the  coun- 
try is  altogether  more  undulating,  rich,  and  picturesque,  than 
any  part  of  the  prairie  which  I  had  yet  seen.  At  Bloomington, 
which  is  a  very  rising  town,  with  7000  people,  10,000  bushels 
of  grain  are  sent  off  daily  by  railroad  to  Chicago  in  a  good 
season.  The  country  here  is  chiefly  settled  by  farmers  from 
the  middle  States,  Ohio  and  Kentucky.  About  thirty  miles 
farther  north,  near  the  station  of  Minonk,  a  large  colony  of 
about  200  families  from  Vermont  have  settled.  They  sent  be- 
fore them  a  committee  of  their  most  skilful  farmers  to  examine 
the  Western  States  and  choose  the  most  suitable  and  advan- 
tageous position  they  could  find.  These  men  made  a  very 
careful  inspection  of  Illinois,  and  other  States  farther  west,  dur- 
ing a  four  months'  tour,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  no 
other  locality  which  they  had  seen  presented  so  great  a  combi- 
nation of  advantages  as  this.  They  bought  altogether  about 
20,000  acres,  upon  which  th(;y  have  been  settled  for  the  last 
three  years. 


IP 


iv 


46 


NOBTHEBN  PBAIBIE. 


At  La  Salle  we  cross  the  Illinois  river,  and  have  now  reached 
the  centre  of  the  coal  region  of  the  northern  part  of  the  State, 
a  busy  populous  district,  in  which  the  population  has  increased 
five  fold  during  the  last  fifteen  years.  The  value  of  land  has 
increased  in  a  much  greater  ratio,  land  near  the  station,  which 
then  sold  at  10s.  an  acre,  being  now  worth  10^. 

At  Mendota,  about  ten  miles  farther  north,  the  country, 
which  is  all  open  prairie,  is  well  "  settled,"  and  the  people  look 
unusually  lively,  healthy,  and  well  fed.  White  clover  may  be 
seen  growing  very  luxuriantly  along  the  railway  banks  where 
the  natural  prairie  grass  has  given  way.  The  same  kind  of 
country  continues  for  the  next  twenty-five  miles  to  Dixon,  which 
is  a  very  handsome  town  of  about  5000  people,  finely  placed  on 
both  sides  of  the  Eock  Eiver,  a  broad  navigable  stream,  flowing 
at  the  bottom  of  shelving  wooded  banks.  For  some  miles  north 
of  Dixon  the  road  runs  up  the  river  bank,  skirting  the  wood- 
land, and  then  emerges  on  a  tract  of  open  undulating  prairie, 
where  large  farms  with  com  fields  stretch  out  apparently  for 
miles  on  either  side.  This  continues  for  the  next  thirty  or  forty 
miles.  In  this  northern  part  of  the  State  the  air  is  much  cooler 
than  in  the  south,  and  the  winters  are  more  severe.  Cattle  re- 
quire six  weeks  longer  of  winter  provender.  Indian  com  is  not 
so  productive  by  one-fourth  as  it  is  in  the  rich  midland  portion 
of  the  State,  and  winter  wheat  is  so  precarious  that  the  spring- 
sovm  variety  is  chiefly  cultivated.  But  this  district  is  ad- 
mirably suited  for  oats  and  potatoes,  and  for  summer  grazing. 
We  have  now  reached  Freeport,  a  flourishing  town  of  7000 
people,  on  the  Pecatonica  river,  nor+'nwards  of  which,  for  the 
next  forty  or  fifty  miles  to  near  Galena,  the  prairie  soil  is  thin- 
ner and  more  rolling,  but  covered  with  white  clover  wherever 
the  natural  grass  has  given  way.  This  terminates  the  prairie 
land. 

Galena  is  the  great  seat  of  the  lead  mines  in  America,  and 


GALENA  LEAD  MINES. 


4t 


ached 
State, 
reased 
id  has 
which 

untry, 
ie  look 
lay  be 
where 
lind  of 
,  which 
iced  on 
lowing 
IS  north 
I  wood- 
prairie, 
itly  for 
or  forty 
1  cooler 
ttle  re- 
lis  not 
portion 
spring- 
is  ad- 
razing. 
'  7000 
br  the 
s  thin- 
erever 
prairie 


yields  annually  about  thiiwy  million  pounds  weight.  It  is  a 
large  and  thriving  town,  situated  on  the  banks  of  Fever  river,* 
which  is  navigable  to  the  Mississippi,  some  few  miles  distant. 
The  river  smelt  noxiously  at  night,  and  the  principal  trading 
streets  lie  along  its  bank.  But  the  residences  of  the  people  are 
prettily  scattered  up  the  hillsides  on  both  banks,  and  the  in- 
habitants themselves,  notwithstanding  the  ominous  name  of  the 
river,  think  there  are  few  places  in  the  State  to  compare  with 
the  town  of  Galena.  I^om  Galena  to  Dunleith  on  the  Missis- 
sippi, and  near  the  north-west  boundary  of  Illinois,  the  country 
has  no  interest  of  importance  to  a  farmer.  It  is  chiefly  wood- 
land, and,  where  open  prairie,  it  is  already  "  settled  "  and  un- 
der cultivation. 

*  This  is  Bean  river  of  the  French.    The  name  has  no  reference  to  any 
malaria  arising  from  the  stream. 


m 


^a,  and 


i 


If 


LETTER    IV. 


5)1 


General  View  of  the  State  of  Illinois.— Comparleon  of  Soil  and  Extent  with  Eng- 
land.—Dunlolth  to  Mendota.— Vast  Wheat  Fields.- Experience  of  a  Scotch 
Carpenter,— Farming  by  Shares.- Cost  of  Farm-houses.— The  River  Illinois. 
—Coal  Lands  of  La  Salle.— Corn  Starch  Factory.— Bloomington.— Settlers 
from  New  York  State.— Account  of  his  Operations  by  Pioneer  of  Settlement. 
—Unusual  Failure  of  Wheat  Crop.— Discouragement  caused  by  this.— Temp- 
tations of  Credit  System.— Instance  of  Purchase  and  Cost  of  making  a  Farm.— 
History  of  an  early  Settler.— The  Banking  System  of  the  Country.— Profits  of 
Banking.—"  Fhin  Plaster  "  Banks. 


[  I 
Kt). 


I  CANNOT  hope  in  tlie  preceding  description  to  have  conveyed  to 
my  reader  more  than  I  myself  received  in  this  hurried  ride, 
namely,  a  genert  1  impression  of  the  main  features  of  the  coun- 
try, and  an  idea  of  an  almost  endless  extent  of  fertile  soil. 
Some  time  was  required,  and  a  careful  study  of  the  map,  before 
even  the  outline  features  of  this  extensive  country  became  lu- 
cidly fixed  in  my  mind.  I  had  first  gone  more  than  300  miles 
due  south  of  Chicago,  and  had  then  turned  back,  and,  by  a 
more  westerly  line,  had  run  about  450  miles  north,  through  the 
centre  of  Illinois  to  its  north-western  boundary  at  Dunleith  on 
the  Mississippi.  To  give  a  homely  and  at  the  sume  time  pretty 
accurate  idea  of  its  extent,  and  bearing  in  mind  that  England 
and  Illinois  are  nearly  equal  in  size,  let  the  reader  imagine 
himself  starting  at  Newcastle  and  proceeding  by  York,  Newark, 
Peterborough,  and  Bedford  to  London,  and  then  on  to  Brighton, 
— there  let  him  turn  back,  retrace  his  course  to  London,  and 
then  take  a  north-westerly  route  by  way  of  Rugby,  Stafford, 
Manchester,  Lancaster,  Carlisle,  and  so  on  to  Glasgow ; — ^let 
him  imagine  the  whole  of  this  extensive  country,  with  the  ex- 


DUNLEITH  TO   MENDOTA. 


49 


ception  of  that  portion  between  London  and  Brighton,  to  be  an 
undulating  plain,  underlaid  in  various  places  with  extensive 
deposits  of  coal  and  iron ; — between  London  and  Brighton  let 
the  country  appear  to  him  to  be  covered  with  timber,  with  a 
climate  and  soil  peculiarly  favourable  to  the  cultivation  of  fruit 
and  grapes,  and  to  the  production  of  the  very  finest  quality  of 
white  wheat ; — let  the  entire  area  from  London  northwards  to 
Newcastle  on  the  one  side,  and  Glasgow  on  the  other,  represent 
"the  prairies"  of  Illinois,— open  steppe-like  lands,  covered 
with  coarse  natural  grasses,  with  scattered  copses  of  timber  on 
the  ridges  and  along  the  watercourses,  and  abounding  in  every 
element  of  fertility.  He  will  thus  be  better  able  to  realise  the 
appearance  of  this  vast  open  undulating  plain,  than  which  there 
is  no  other  in  the  temperate  zone  so  uninterruptedly  extensive 
and  ferti.(e.  ^', 

I  spent  most  of  the  month  of  October  in  making  a  more 
minute  and  detailed  examination  of  farming  on  the  prairie,  and 
will  now  ask  the  reader  to  accompany  me  in  my  ride,  before 
troubling  him  with  the  figures  and  conclusions  at  which  I  finally 
arrived.  The  railway  shall  transport  us  from  point  to  point  on 
the  route,  and  a  very  light  waggon  or  carriage  invariably  drawn 
by  a  "  span  "  (as  they  are  called  here)  or  pair  of  light  active 
horses,  of  great  spirit  and  endurance,  shall  convey  us  hither  and 
thither  over  the  country  in  our  inspection  of  the  prairie  farms. 

Starting  from  the  north-western  point  at  Dunleith,  the  first 
halt  we  make  is  at  Mendota,  about  seventy  or  eighty  miles 
from  the  northern  boundary  of  the  state.  It  is  the  point  of 
junction  with  a  railway  running  westward  from  Chicago  to  the 
Mississippi,  opposite  Burlmgton  in  Iowa.  The  road  traverses 
a  rich  district  of  prairie,  extremely  favourable  to  cultivation.  I 
travelled  nearly  100  miles  through  this  part  of  the  country,  and 
found  the  soil  generally  rich  and  deep,  and  the  white  clover  and 
sown  grasses  very  healthy  and  luxuriant.  Some  corn  fields  are 
8 


1! 


it 


!•  I: 


,    I 


fi  I 


i: 
*  I. 


50 


FABMING  IN  BHABSS. 


.?i*:.' " 


of  uncommon  magnitude :  one  vast  sweep  of  2,200  acres  was 
all  in  new-sown  wheat,  a  sparkling  sheet  of  verdure  in  the 
morning  sun.  The  towns,  most  of  which  are  not  four  years  old, 
are  growing  rapidly.  I  met  a  carpenter  from  Lanarkshire,  who 
had  been  settled  in  the  country  for  twelve  years.  Though  he 
had  made  money  he  could  not  keep  it,  but  he  blamed  himself 
for  this,  as  every  steady  man,  he  said,  who  had  come  to  this 
part  of  the  country  from  Scotland  had  thriven.  Wages  were 
at  present  lower  than  he  had  ever  known  them,  a  journeyman 
carpenter  receiving  only  45.  a  day,  with  his  board.  He  had 
seen  many  instances  of  men  getting  themselves  into  diflSculties 
by  buying  more  land  than  they  had  means  to  manage  and  pay 
for.  But  there  is  a  plan  of  going  "shares,"  in  which  a  prudent 
Scotch  farm  labourer  meets  with  great  success.  He  has  a  farm 
given  him  to  cultivate,  fenced  and  broken  up,  and  seeded ; — 
he  performs  the  rest  of  the  labour  and  carries  on  the  farm,  and 
pays  his  rent  by  delivering  at  the  nearest  station  the  half  of 
the  crop.  This  is  an  arrangement  by  which  a  steady  man  is 
sure  to  succeed,  and  the  owner  of  the  land  is  also  well  paid. 

The  carpenter  was  at  that  time  constructing  a  small  farm- 
house of  timber  by  contract.  The  foundation  was  of  mason 
work,  with  large  underground  cellar,  the  inside  dimensions  of 
the  building  being  eighteen  feet  by  twenty-four,  divided  into 
two  rooms  and  a  kitchen,  with  side  posts  twelve  feet  high, 
boarded,  lathed,  and  plastered,  and  roofed  with  shingle,  com- 
plete for  40Z.  Last  year  the  same  house  would  have  cost  QOl. ; 
but  both  lumber  and  wages  have  fallen  since  the  money  panic 
about  a  third. 

Following  the  route  southwards  for  some  twenty  miles,  we 
come  to  the  Illinois  River  at  La  Salle.  This  river  discharges 
itself  into  the  Mississippi  after  a  course  of  500  miles,  dur- 
ing which  it  drains  nearly  all  the  centre  of  Illinois,  increasing 
its  volume  by  the  waters  of  many  tributaries.     It  has  been  nav- 


LA  SALLE  COAL-PIEr.D. 


91 


was 

L  the 

sold, 

I,  who 

ghhe 

mseU 

o  this 

}  were 

eyman 

[e  had 

iculties 

.nd  pay 

prudent 

;  a  farm 

jded ; — ■ 

,riii,  and 
half  of 

r  man  is 
paid. 

ill  farm- 
f  mason 
isions  of 
ded  into 
eet  high, 
rle,  com- 
jost  GOZ. ; 
tey  panic 

Imiles,  we 

ischarges 

tiles,  dur- 

icreasing 

Ibeen  nav- 


igated by  steamboats  for  many  years,  and  furnishes  a  cheap 
water  communication  for  the  interchange  of  products  anywhere 
along  the  line  of  the  Mississii'i ",  from  St.  Paul's  to  New  Or- 
leans. My  object  in  stopping  Ik  -e  was  to  inspect  the  coal-lands, 
of  which  La  Salle  is  the  great  centre.  Taking  waggon  at  Ot- 
tawa, we  crossed  the  river  and  drove  some  ten  miles  across  the 
prairie,  through  a  good  country — all  occupied — till  we  reached 
the  bed  of  another  stream,  called  the  Big  VermiUon,  where  the 
coal  makes  its  appearance  on  the  surface.  Here,  from  the 
strata  on  the  river  side,  we  entered  a  shaft  which  penetrates  a 
seam  of  coal  nine  feet  thick,  so  situated  that  it  drains  itself. 
Near  this,  some  thin  seams  of  cannel  coal  have  been  found. 
All  this  part  of  the  country  is  underlaid  with  coal,  which  may 
be  mined  Avith  the  greatest  ease.  The  surface  is  fine,  rolling, 
fertile  prairie ;  and  there  is  abundance  of  limestone  everywhere. 
The  La  Salle  coal-field,  as  at  present  worked,  produces  about 
1000  tons  of  coals  a  week,  and  is  capable  of  any  required  ex- 
tension. 

Eeturning  to  OtUwa,  I  visited  a  manufactory  for  making 
starch  from  Indian  corn.  It  is  situated  advantageously  in  a 
good  coimtry  for  purchasing  the  corn,  and  with  every  advan- 
tage of  abundant  water-power,  and  canal  and  railway  commu- 
nication. Three  kinds  of  products  are  manufactured,  one  of  fine 
starch,  one  of  ordinary  starch,  and  one  for  making  puddings.  Two 
pounds  weight  of  com  yield  one  of  starch.  The  corn  costs  a 
farthing,  and  the  starch  sells  at  the  factory  for  dd.  a  pound,  so 
that  this  business  should  leave  a  good  profit.  1  here  is  a  similar 
work  at  Oswego,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  which  has  proved  very 
profitable  to  its  owners.  The  article  made  there  has  found  its 
way  to  England,  is  now  extensively  used  under  the  name  ot 
"  Corn  Food,"  and  is  by  many  considered  more  palatable  and 
nutritious  than  either  arrow-root  or  sago.     This  use  of  Indian 


T. 

i* 


52 


FAEMING  ON  THE  PEAIEIE 


U1 


I' 

■t 


com  is  another  of  the  many  excellent  purposes  subserved  by 
that  most  productive  of  all  grain. 

Crossing  the  Illinois  River  at  La  Salle  by  a  viaduct  2000 
feet  in  length,  and  80  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  stream,  we  had 
a  fine  view  of  the  limestone  bluflFs  which  here  rise  to  a  height 
of  200  feet.  After  a  run  southwards  of  some  sixty  miles,  I 
stopped  at  Bloomington,  which  is  within  the  district  of  what  is 
usually  reckoned  the  richest  territory  in  the  State.  At  this 
flourishing  and  pretty  town  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  obtain 
the  guidance  of  a  gentleman  of  much  intelligence  and  local  ex- 
perience, who  unites  in  his  own  person  the  various  functions 
of  banker,  lawyer,  judge,  and  colonel.  We  spent  the  day  in 
riding  over  the  country,  and  in  looking  at  the  farms  and  talk- 
ing with  the  settlers.  They  were  men  chiefly  from  the  State 
of  New  York,  and  were  all  complaining  of  the  last  wheat  har- 
vest as  a  nearly  total  failure.  One  of  the  pioneers  of  the  set- 
tlement thus  told  me  his  story.  He  came  here  four  years  ago, 
and  was  so  much  pleased  with  the  land  and  situation,  that  he 
advised  his  neighbours  in  the  State  of  New  York  to  follow  his 
example.  He  purchased  2,500  acres  of  as  fine  prairie  as  can 
be  desired.  The  first  two  years  everything  was  successful. 
He  grew  more  than  thirty  bushels  of  wheat  an  acre  on  the 
newly  broken  land,  and  sold  it  for  55.  a  bushel.  He  was  thus 
tempted  to  lay  out  the  money  as  fast  as  he  made  it,  in  enclos- 
ing and  breaking  more.  The  autumn  before  last  he  sowed  800 
acres  with  wheat ;  600  of  it  was  killed  by  frost,  the  snow  that 
winter  being  so  light  as  not  to  cover  it.  He  ploughed  this  up 
and  sowed  again  with  spring  wheat,  which  succeeded  admirably. 
Last  autumn  he  laid  down  600  acres  with  wheat,  but  was 
somewhat  late  and  out  of  season  in  getting  it  sown.  The 
spring  proved  unprecedentedly  wet,  the  wheat  was  late  in  ma- 
turing, extreme  hot  weather  set  in,  and  his  wheat,  which  till 
then  looked  well,  was  in  one  week  rendered  nearly  worthless. 


NEAE  BLOOMINGTON. 


53 


The  long-continued  rains  in  spring  had  given  them  no  season 
for  oats,  and  Indian  corn  had  for  the  same  cause  been  planted 
out  of  season,  with  the  land  in  an  unfavourable  state,  and  the 
breadth  very  limited.  This  crop,  which  should  be  in  the  ground 
early  in  May,  could  not  this  year  be  planted  till  towards  the 
end  of  June.  Fortunately  they  had  not  had  early  frosts,  so 
that  there  would  be  a  fair  yield.  There  had  been  no  such  un- 
favourable season  for  seventeen  years  in  Illinois,  and  he  knew 
that  the  farmers  who  had  recently  settled  in  the  country,  and 
who  had  had  only  last  year's  experience,  were  much  disheart- 
ened. But  personally  he  felt  no  apprehension,  as  he  had  the 
utmost  confidence  in  the  natural  fertility  of  the  soil,  which  he 
did  not  believe  could  be  exhausted.  He  had  seen  similar  land 
in  this  State  from  which  twenty-four  crops  of  Indian  corn  had 
been  taken  in  succession,  without  manure,  and  the  last  was  a 
splendid  crop. 

The  next  settler  was  a  young  man,  a  graduate  of  Yale 
College,  who  had  purchased  a  section  of  land  (640  acres)  three 
years  ago  at  nearly  3/.  an  acre.  He  had  built  a  house,  en- 
closed his  land,  and  broken  up  the  half  of  it ;  but  the  wheat 
crop  of  last  year,  to  which  he  trusted  for  future  funds,  had 
proved  an  entire  failure.  He  spoke  despondingly  of  his  future 
prospects,  as  he  had,  like  many  others,  been  tempted  by  the 
facilities  afforded  by  the  credit  system  of  purchase  in  these 
Western  States,  to  buy  a  much  greater  extent  of  land  than  his 
available  means  were  adequate  for.  He  said  that  they  all  counted 
on  their  wheat  crop  to  "  bring  them  out ; "  but,  that  having 
failed  them,  the  whole  country  was  straitened.  He  wished  to 
sell  out  at  4:1.  10s.  an  acre,  that  he  might  have  the  means  of 
paying  off  his  debts,  and  repurchasing  a  smaller  farm  in  the 
same  locality,  where  his  obligations  and  risks  would  be  less. 

All  the  other  settlers  I  met  in  this  quarter  had  the  same 
tale  of  a  wretched  wheat  crop.     One  had  had  120  acres  of  wheat, 


m 

m 


04 


CAUSES  OP  FAILUEE. 


which  he  examined  with  several  experienced  farmers  a  few 
weeks  before  harvest,  and  they  agreed  in  estimating  the  prob- 
able yield  at  eighteen  to  twenty  bushels  an  acre.  When  it 
was  ripe  he  began  to  harvest  it,  but  after  cutting  seventy  acres 
he  discovered  that  there  was  nothing  but  shrivelled  husk  in  the 
ear,  so  entirely  •woithless  that  he  not  only  desisted  from  cutting 
the  rest,  but  set  fire  to  all  that  was  abeady  cut,  as  well  as  that 
which  remained. 

While  the  more  faint-hearted  were  discouraged  by  the  un- 
toward season,  there  were  many  instances  of  an  opposite  kind. 
A  very  frequent  cause  of  failure  I  found  to  arise  from  the  in- 
capacity of  the  settler  to  avail  himself  fully  of  his  position. 
The  credit  system  tempts  him  to  buy  a  large  extent  of  land, 
every  unused  acre  of  which  becomes  at  once  a  dead  weight 
upon  him.  If  a  man  buys  600  acres  and  has  not  the  means 
of  cultivating  more  than  60,  the  540  acres  are  a  dead  loss  to 
him.  He  has  to  pay  either  the  price,  or  the  interest  of  the 
price,  of  this  large  unproductive  and,  to  him,  useless  extent  of 
land.  The  produce  of  the  60  acres  is  called  upon  to  bear,  not 
only  its  own  burden,  but  that  of  the  nine-tenths  which  are  idle. 
The  lean  kine  thus  eat  up  the  one  fat  one.  In  prosperous  sea- 
sons so  great  a  pull  even  as  this  can  be  withstood.  But  the 
first  strain  breaks  it  down. 

An  example  of  an  opposite  kind  will  show  a  more  correct 
system.  A  person  last  spring  bought  640  acres  of  land  in  this 
neighbourhood.  He  enclosed  the  whole  of  it,  had  it  all  ploughed 
by  contract,  and  sowed  it  with  wheat.  Not  an  acre  of  his 
purchase  was  left  idle.  It  was  all  sown  in  good  order  and  in 
good  time,  and  the  chances  were  that  the  whole  of  it  would 
succeed.  As  every  part  of  the  work  was  done  by  contract,  and 
would  be  so  completed,  I  am  enabled  to  show  the  exact  cost  of 
the  whole  operation,  and  the  probable  return. 


COST  AND  PEOmS. 


m 


A  ving  fence  round  the  whole,  of  substantial  boards  and  post?, 

Contract  price  paid  for  breaking  the  whole,  and  putting  in  the 

Paid  for  seed  wheat,      ...... 

Contract  for  harvesting,  thrashing,  and  delivering. 

Price  of  the  land,  cash,  viz.,  $10,  or  £2  an  acre, 


£240 

260 
160 
500 

£1,160 
1,280 

£2,440 


Cr. 

Probable  crop : 
20  bushels  an  acre  ==  12,800  bushels,  worth  TS  cents, 

oi-  •  '         .  .  .  .  .  .  £1,920 

Valup  .        0  land  after  being  enclosed  and  broken, 

\-zi.,  .iji2|-,  or  £2  10s.  an  acre,  .  .  1,600 


Profit  tho  first  year,  if  the  crop  succeeds. 


3,620 
£1,080 


These  figures  were  given  to  me  by  a  man  of  knowledge  and 
experience  ;  but  the  contract  prices  at  present  are  lower  than 
usual,  and  the  cost  of  fencing  and  breaking  is  thus  below  the 
average  cost  of  these  operations.  Neither  is  there  any  charge 
for  buildings,  though  that  would  not  aflfect  the  balance,  as  the 
property  would  be  by  that  amount  the  more  valuable.  And  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  wheat  crop  sometimes  fails,  while 
the  above  satisfactory  result  makes  no  allowance  for  failures. 

I  here  learned  the  history  of  one  of  the  early  and  most  suc- 
cessful settlers  in  Illinois.  He  and  his  brother,  then  young 
men  of  twenty  and  twenty-one,  came  to  this  State  thirty-four 
years  ago,  having  left  Ohio  after  an  unsuccessful  adventure  in 
cattle  trading.  They  were  in  debt  when  they  began  business 
in  Illinois.  They  arrived  in  what  was  then  a  wilderness,  and 
pitched  their  tent  on  the  spot  where  one  of  them  now  resides. 


ifa 


56 


A  SUCCESSFUL  SETTLEB. 


t   9 

P 
I 


They  brought  with  them  a  pair  of  oxen,  a  mare,  some  few 
household  utensils,  a  waggon,  and  two  axes.  They  stopped 
near  a  "  grove,"  auA  built  themselves  a  shanty  or  log  hut.  In 
addition  to  the  ger  tal  stock,  one  of  the  brothers  had  a  fur  hat 
which,  after  his  arrival,  he  "  traded  "  for  a  breeding  sow.  They 
worked  away,  gathered  live  stock,  there  being  no  limit  to  the 
liberty  of  grazing,  drove  them  great  distances  to  market,  and 
accumulated  money.  As  the  money  gathered  they  bought  up 
all  the  land  they  could  get  at  the  government  sales,  at  5s.  an 
acre,  continued  their  stock  farming,  and  now  send  100  fat  cat- 
tle weekly  to  New  York  market,  during  the  fall  season  after 
the  cattle  are  fat.  One  of  the  brothers  is  believe'?  to  have  now, 
in  this  prudent  way,  acquired  land  worth  a  quarter  of  a  million 
sterling. 

The  soil  in  all  this  district  is  a  rich  black  sanuy  loam,  lying 
in  fine  gentle  sweeps,  admirably  adapted  for  carrying  on  with 
ease  and  economy  all  the  operations  of  husbandry,  and,  to  use 
the  phrase  of  the  country,  is  very  "  handsome  "  prairie. 

On  my  return  to  Bloomington  I  had  an  opportunity  of  learn- 
ing something  of  the  banking  system  of  the  country.  The  law 
j^ermits  any  man,  or  company,  who  can  purchase  10,000Z.  worth 
of  State  stock  to  issue  bank  notes.  He  deposits  this  stock  with 
the  treasurer  of  the  State  as  security  for  the  liquidation  of  the 
notes,  and  is  then  authorised  to  issue  his  own  notes  to  the  ex- 
tent of  9000/.,  which  are  countersigned  by  the  auditor  of  the 
State.  These  notes  he  lends  out  to  his  customers  at  the  cur- 
rent rates  of  interest.  The  notes  are  payable  in  gold  on  de- 
mand, and  if  payment  is  refused,  the  holder  protests  the  notes 
and  carries  them  to  the  State  auditor,  who  is  in  that  case  em- 
powered to  sell  so  much  of  the  deposited  stock  as  may  be  re- 
quisite to  liquidate  the  protested  notes.  Thus  if  the  State  stock 
is  convertible  at  or  near  par,  the  note-holder  is  always  safe : 
and  the  banker  makes  an  excellent  business  of  it,  as  he  receives 


THE  BANKING  SYSTEM. 


51 


his  6  per  cent,  dividend  on  the  deposited  State  stock,  besides 
the  interest  and  commissions  which  he  can  realise  ui  lending 
to  his  customers  the  notes  which  represent  the  same  money. 
In  a  country  like  this  where  every  farmer  is  the  owner  of  his 
land,  and  where  conveyances  of  real  estate  and  mortgages  are 
managed  in  the  simplest  and  cheapest  manner,  there  can  be  no 
business  either  safer  or  more  profitable  than  that  of  a  banker. 
The  loans  are  made  chiefly  on  the  security  of  real  estate,  and 
the  rate  of  profit  in  these  new  countries,  where  land  is  cheap 
and  productive,  admits  of  10  per  cent,  as  the  common  rate  of 
interest  on  such  security. 

That  such  a  system  of  paper  currency  must  occasionally  lead 
to  embarrassment  is  self-evident.  For  with  a  general  run 
on  the  banks  there  must  be  a  suspension,  as  the  State  securi- 
ties would  in  that  case  become  as  inconvertible  as  the  bank 
notes. 

But  though  the  fair  and  legitimate  profits  of  the  bankers 
are  thus  very  considerable,  plans  are  occasionally  adopted  for 
increasing  these  profits,  which  are  reckoned  here,  though  a  lit- 
tle "smart,"  still  perfectly  fair.  If  a  banker  is  in  good  credit 
he  finds  that  his  notes  will  circulate  readily  although  not  pay- 
able in  the  State  in  which  he  carries  on  his  business.  He  may 
have  bought  the  stock  of  some  other  State,  Alabama  ( .  Florida 
for  instance,  lodged  his  stock  there,  a-  ^  obtained  the  counter- 
signature of  the  State  auditor  to  the  authorised  amount  of  notes 
which  he  dates  within  that  State,  and  where  alone  they  are  de- 
mandable  in  gold.  He  does  not  issue  them  there,  but  brings 
them  to  his  usual  place  of  busi''  ^ss,  many  hundreds  of  miles 
distant,  and  then  lends  them  out  among  his  customers.  When 
the  notes  come  back  upon  him  he  requires  a  commission,  not 
that  he  disputes  his  liability  or  the  soundness  of  the  notes,  /ut 
because  he  deems  himself  entitled  thus  to  add  to  his  profits, 
on  the  plea  that  if  gold  was  wanted  the  holder  of  the  note 
8* 


i 


58 


WILD  CAT  BANKS. 


would  have  to  incur  a  certain  amount  of  charge  in  sending  it 
to  the  distant  place  of  issue ! 

But  there  is  a  still  more  questionable  kind  of  banking 
adopted  by  some  sm&,  uen  in  this  western  world,  though  I  did 
not  meet  with  any  ins  ices  of  it  in  Illinois.  It  is  dt^nominated 
the  "  Shin  Plaster''  oi'  "Wild  Cat"  banking  system.  This 
is  the  description  given  to  me  by  a  man,  who  spoke  from  ex- 
perience, of  the  way  to  get  up  such  a  bank.  You  go  into  a 
State  where  the  stock  is  below  par,  say  at  70  or  80.  You  buy 
50,000  dollars  of  that  stock,  lodge  it  with  the  State  auditor,  and 
obtain  his  counter-signature  to  your  bank  notes.  This  paper 
money  you  take  into  the  \.ilderness,  knock  up  a  shanty,  write 
"  Bank  "  over  it,  and  date  your  paper  money  there.  The  more 
inaccessible  the  place  is  the  better,  as  your  paper  is  demanda- 
ble  in  coin  only  at  the  place  of  issue.  Having  performed  these 
necessary  rites,  you  bring  your  notes  to  some  centre  of  business : 
they  receive  currency  at  once  from  the  State  auditor's  signature, 
and  as  you  are  a  sharp  business  man  you  lend  them  readily  on 
mortgage  of  real  estate  at  1^  to  2  per  cent,  per  month.  There 
is  little  fear  of  your  notes  coming  back  on  you  for  payment,  as 
the  place  of  issue  is  undiscoverable.  Every  man  into  whose 
hands  they  come  is  interested  in  keeping  them  afloat.  By  de- 
grees they  are  worn  out,  and  thus  with  ordinary  luck  you  se- 
cure your  own  deposit  with  the  State,  and  its  representative, 
which,  in  the  hands  of  the  public,  has  gradually  disappeared ! 
However  improbable  it  may  seem,  I  was  assured  that  such  prac- 
tices are  to  this  moment  followed ;  but  of  course  they  are  ut- 
terly discountenanced  by  all  bankers  of  standing  and  respec- 
tab"^'ty. 


.';  ■^■.''■'  I 


i(K-;  i,i 


'-i  'i','''  '■"'■V 


;  :^:'i:*  ;;-i, fi'^i'' 


LETTER    V. 


^■■' 


Springfield.— Appearance  of  Country.— Cattle  Show.— Stock  Farming.— Experi- 
ence of  a  Buccessful  Farmer.— His  Mode  of  laying  his  Farm  to  Grass.- Novel 
Implements.— Merino  Sheep  Farming.— Account  of  it  by  the  Owner  of  a  larf  o 
Flock.— System  of  managing  Prairie  Land  recommended.— Sowing  Grass 
Seeds  on  Snow.— Valuable  Meadow.— Price  of  Merino  Sheep.— Superio'  "ty  of 
Prairie  to  Timbered  Country.— The  Governor  of  Illinois.— The  Public  Ofllcers 
of  State.— Manners  of  the  People.— Deoatur.—Lost  on  the  Prairie.- The 
American  Settler.— Mutual  Help.— Fences.— Pana  and  its  Neighbourhood.— 
Settlement  of  French  Canadians. 


From  Bloomington  I  proceeded  southwards  to  Springfield,  the 
capital,  and  not  far  from  the  centre  of  the  state  of  Illinois. 
This  is  a  fine  town,  with  good  streets  and  shops,  and  the  ne  V 
bourhood  is  diversified  by  timber.  It  is  like  all  other  pWes 
in  this  part  of  the  country,  surrounded  by  the  wide  prairie. 
The  view  from  the  top  of  the  State  house  very  much  resembles 
that  of  the  plain  of  Lombardy  as  seen  from  the  Duomo  of 
Milan,  except  that  there  is,nowhere  a  boundary  of  mountains. 
But  there  is  the  same  far  stretching  plain,  with  trees  in  lines 
and  groups,  the  timber  becoming  denser  along  the  banks  of 
the  streams,  which  have  cut  out  for  themselves  hollow  passages 
winding  about  on  the  panoramic  landscape  spread  before  the 
eye.  The  inhabitants  of  the  town,  like  those  in  the  country, 
are  not  this  season  exempt  from  ague. 

I  visited  the  country  cattle  fair  or  show  which  was  then 
being  held  in  a  field  close  by  the  town.  The  best  short-horn 
stock  were  exhibited  by  Mr.  Brown,  a  celebrated  cattle  breeder 
of  this  State,  whose  acquaintance  I  had  the  good  fortune  to 
make  in  the  show  yard.     He  exhibited  a  short-horn  cow,  bred 


60 


STOCK  VAmnSQ. 


by  himself,  six  years  old,  which  had  had  five  calves,  a  large 
fat  handsome  animal,  which  would  have  been  a  prize  taker  at 
any  English  show.  He  sf'owed  also  a  three-year-old  short- 
horn bull  from  Lord  Ducie's  stock,  imported  last  year.  The 
large  stock  farmers  of  the  West,  who  are  the  really  monied  men, 
are  taking  great  pains  to  improve  the  quality  of  their  cattle 
by  the  importation  of  the  best  English  blood.  It  is  an  excel- 
lent policy,  and  they  are  already  abundantly  reaping  the  re- 
ward of  their  enterprise.  For  though  at  this  autumnal  season, 
the  prairie  grass  looks  coarse  and  innutritions,  a  stranger  has 
only  to  examine  the  cattle  which  are  fed  upon  it  to  convince 
himself  of  its  feeding  qualities.  And,  as  this  grass  is  every- 
•where  to  be  had  here  for  nothing,  the  grazier  consults  his  own 
interest  by  incurring  some  expense  in  improving  the  present 
breeds  of  cattle,  and  thus  obtaining  earlier  maturity,  better 
quality,  and  quicker  returns  from  his  extensive  grazings.  Of 
the  cattle  common  to  the  country  there  were  several  specimens 
exhibited,  of  enormous  size.  One  red  and  white  ox  "wlLh  wide 
upturned  horns,  four  and  a  half  years  old,  measured  2,700  lb. 
weight.  He  handled  well,  though  very  strong  in  the  bone 
and  limbs.  Another  of  2000  lb.  gross  weight  was  reckoned 
on  the  spot  worth  only  14^.  at  the  current  price  of  beef,  viz. 
about  2d.  a  pound  dead  weight. 

Mr.  Brown  has  been  many  years  in  the  country  engaged 
in  farming.  He  farms  largely,  and  believes  that  more  money 
may  be  made,  and  has  been  made,  in  this  State  by  stock  farm- 
ing than  corn  growing.  Nor  is  this  remarkable,  inasmuch  as 
grazing  land  on  the  prairies  hitherto  could  be  had  for  nothing, 
costing  neither  rent  nor  taxes,  while  corn  land  must  be  bought, 
enclosed,  and  cultivated,  and  labour  has  hitherto  been  expen- 
sive. However,  till  very  recently  there  was  no  outlet  for  corn. 
Railways  are  rapidly  altering  the  former  state  of  things,  and 
Indian  corn  is  no  longer  unsaleable  at  6d.  a  bushel.     He  has 


LATING  PBAIBIE  TO  GRASS. 


61 


found  short-horn  stock  the  most  profitable,  which  is  no  doubt 
chiefly  owing  to  the  high  prices  he  is  enabled  to  realise  in  the 
sale  of  well  bred  stock  for  improving  the  breeds  of  the  coun- 
try. But  he  has  not  found  them  so  successful  on  the  natural 
prairie  grass,  of  which  on  his  own  lands  he  has  no  longer  any. 
Though  the  prairie  grass  may  be  extirpated  in  time  by  close 
feeding,  he  has  foui^d  it  the  best  practice  to  break  it  up,  and, 
after  a  course  of  tillage,  to  sow  the  land  out  with  blue  grass 
and  clover.  The  blue  grass  is  a  rich  thick  succulent  grass  of 
a  bluish  colour,  which  grows  with  great  success  on  the  lime- 
stone soils  of  Kentucky,  and  is  found  to  succeed  admirably  on 
the  prairies  when  laid  down  as  pasture.  It  improves  every 
year,  and  yields  feed  for  six  months,  besides  half  feed  during 
the  winter,  whereas  the  natural  prairie  grass  is  in  its  best  state 
only  for  the  first  four  months  after  spring.  Mr.  Brown  has 
all  his  lands  now  laid  down  in  "tame"  grass,  as  the  sown 
grasses  are  commonly  termed  here.  He  keeps  no  stock  except 
his  thorough-bred  short-horns,  and  lets  b*s  surplus  grass  for 
grazing  at  one  dollar  a  month  for  each  animal,  during  the 
summer  and  autumn.  He  feeds  his  own  stock  during  wlater 
on  the  pastures,  giving  them  corn  and  hay  in  time  of  snow. 
As  he  can  buy  Indian  corn  in  his  part  of  the  State  at  an  aver- 
age of  8c?.  a  bushel,  he  has  no  doubt  that  this  is  the  kind  of 
farming  which  best  suits  Illinois.  He  had  tried  sheep,  and 
found  them  to  do  well,  but  having  no  taste  for  them  he  keeps 
exclusively  to  cattle. 

There  were  various  novel  agricultural  implements  exhibited 
in  the  show  yard.  Ploughs  mounted  on  an  axle,  with  high 
wheels,  the  only  advantage  of  which  seemed  to  be  that  a  seat 
was  thus  provided  for  the  driver.  There  weie  seed  planters 
of  ingenious  construction,  a  circular  self-cleaning  harrow,  which 
ahvays  goes  round  about  while  being  dragged  forward, — ^little 
hand  machines  for  washing  clothes  upon,  which  are  said  to 


62 


A  MEBINO  FLOCK. 


economise  labour  100  per  cent, — and  a  chain-bucket  pump,  an 
extremely  simple,  cheap  and  efficient  article. 

I  drove  a  few  miles  out  of  towu  to  visit  the  farm  of  Mr. 
M'Connell,  who  was  recommended  to  me  by  the  Governor  of 
the  State  as  a  man  of  great  intelligence,  integrity,  and  expe 
rience.  I  walked  and  drove  over  his  farm,  examined  his  stock, 
and  received  from  him  very  clear  and  distinct  information.  He 
is  a  practical  man  who  has  been  all  his  life  engaged  in  farm- 
ing, and  has  fought  his  way  up  to  a  very  (jomfortable  inde- 
pendence. "^^J  left  "the  old  country"  in  1811,  farmed  in  a 
small  way  for  thirty  years  in  the  state  of  New  York,  where  he 
tirst  i|ettled,  and  moved  thence  to  Illinois  seventeen  years  ago. 
He  had  always  preferred  sheep-farming,  and  brought  his  small 
flock  of  merinos  with  him.  They  have  been  remarkably  healthy, 
increase  one-third  every  year,  and  his  flock  now  numbers 
25,000.  His  fleeces  average  four  to  five  pounds  each,  and  the 
wool  sells  for  Is.  Sd.  to  2s.  a  pound.  He  bought  his  farm  at 
1/.  an  acre,  and  could  now  sell  it  at  10/.,  as  it  is  in  a  good  po- 
sition near  the  capital  of  the  State.  But  he  is  so  firmly  per- 
suaded of  the  rapidly  growing  wealth  of  this  fine  State,  that  he 
has  no  doubt  of  his  farm  being  worth  20/.  an  acre  a  few  years 
hence.  He  considers  the  land  for  100  miles  round  Springfield 
to  be  the  best  in  the  world. 

Mr.  M'Connell  sends  his  flock  to  the  open  prairies  in  April, 
places  about  twelve  hundred  under  the  charge  of  one  shepherd, 
who  tends  them  and  supplies  them  with  salt.  They  need  no 
other  food  for  six  months.  He  brings  them  to  his  enclosed 
ground  in  winter,  and  gives  them  hay  when  they  need  it,  and 
a  little  corn.  His  flock  has  never  sufiered  from  any  epidemic, 
but  on  the  contrary  have  been  extremely  free  from  disease. 
His  original  flock  grew  one-fourth  in  weight  and  size  after  be- 
ing brought  from  New  York  State  to  this  better  soil.  He 
prefers  the  merino  to  the  South  Down  for  this  climate  and  soil, 


FABM  MANAQEMENT. 


ea 


and  has  found  from  trial  that  the  merinos  yield  as  much  mut- 
ton and  far  hetter  wool.  He  imports  pure  merino  rams  from 
Germany  and  Spain  to  improve  his  flock.    '      '•     •      i 

Mr.  M'Connell  finds  that  by  feeding  prairie  grass  close  with 
sheep,  it,  in  a  few  years,  gives  way  to  blue  grass  and  white 
clover— which  come  naturally  of  themselves  and  without  being 
sowd.  But  the  plan  he  recommends  for  laying  this  land  down 
into  good  meadow  and  pasture,  is  to  break  up  the  soil  some 
time  between  the  middle  of  May  and  middle  of  July ;  (a  few 
days  earlier  or  later  may  be  tolerated,  but  not  more,  as  if  prairie 
land  is  broken  out  of  season  the  labour  is  worse  than  lost.)  Sow 
wheat  in  end  of  August,  or  1st  of  September:  the  following 
season,  after  wheat,  take  a  crop  of  Indian  corn,  which  must  be 
kept  clean ;  after  the  crop  is  removed,  level  the  ground  well, 
and  in  February  sow  one  peck  of  Timothy  to  the  acre, — if  on 
the  snow  so  much  the  better,  as  the  dark  seeds  attract  the  sun's 
rays,  and  gradually  melt  a  passage  for  themselves  to  the  soil 
below,  and  the  moment  the  snow  disappears,  they,  being  al- 
ready imbedded  in  the  damp  soil,  spring  up  at  once,  and  take 
the  start  of  all  other  vegetation.  Late  in  March  add  two 
pounds  of  clover  seed  per  acre,  and  a  good  hay  crop  will  be 
certain. — I  can  testify  to  the  success  of  this  management,  as  I 
walked  over  a  meadow  of  many  acres  on  this  gentleman's  land, 
on  which  there  was  ricked  a  crop  of  at  least  two  tons  an  acre 
of  very  excellent  mixed  clover  and  grass  hay.  The  aftermath 
was  rich  close  luxuriant  clover,  on  which  a  flock  of  lambs  were 
grazing,  just  such  clover  aftermath  as  we  should  find  in  this 
country  on  good  land  after  the  first  crop  of  hay.  I  thought  it 
had  been  the  first  crop,  but  learnt  to  my  surprise  that  the 
meadow  had  been  sown  out  twelve  years  ago,  that  it  had  little 
manure  all  that  time,  had  borne  a  crop  of  hay  every  year,  and 
been  fed  close  afterwards  with  sheep,  during  winter  and  spring, 
till  the  prairie  grass  grew.     I  have  never  seen  land  in  Britain 


c 


04 


FEBTILITT   OF  SOIL. 


that  would  bear  a  close  clover  aftermath  at  a  period  so  distant 
from  the  time  of  being  seeded,  and  cannot  withhold  my  belief 
in  the  fertile  qualities  of  a  soil  capable  of  doing  so.  Mr. 
M'Connell  has  no  doubt  that  the  prairie  land  would  benefit  by 
the  occasional  application  of  manure,  but  he  never  met  with 
any  other  soil  so  constantly  productive  without  it.  He  has 
known  the  first  wheat  crop  pay  the  price  of  the  land,  with  the 
cost  of  fencing  it,  and  all  labour,  and  leave  a  small  balance 
over. 

With  regard  to  sheep-farming,  his  opinion  is  that  corn  and 
hay  should  first  be  provided  by  a  few  years'  cultivation,  before 
going  largely  into  a  flock.  The  prairie  grass  will  furnish  sum- 
mer keep  at  little  or  no  cost,  but  provision  must  be  made  for  the 
winter.  Good  merinos  can  be  bought  for  85.  to  125.  6d.  a-head 
in  flocks.  There  is  probably  no  kind  of  farming  on  the  prairies 
from  which  the  returns  would  be  so  regular  and  certain. 

Mr.  M'Connell  had  tried  a  timber  country  before  coming 
here,  and  was  very  energetic  in  expressing  his  opinion  of  the 
superior  advantages  to  a  settler  on  the  prairie. 

When  in  the  capital  I  did  myself  the  honour  of  visiting  the 
Governor,  who  lives  in  a  handsome  house  provided  for  him  by 
the  State,  who  also  grant  him  the  modest  revenue  of  500Z.  a 
year.  He  was  a  distinguished  soldier  in  the  Mexican  war,  and 
had  long  been  one  of  the  Senators  of  Congress.  He  has  the 
highest  hopes  of  the  future  of  Illinois,  and  he,  like  other  men 
of  character  and  position  to  whom  I  have  put  the  question,  ex- 
pressed the  belief  that  fever  and  ague  in  this  State  are  on  the 
decline,  though  from  special  causes  there  had  this  year  been  an 
exceptional  prevalence  of  both. 

I  visited  also  the  State  House,  where  the  two  branches  of 
the  State  Legislature  hold  their  sittings,  and  in  which  are  the 
bureaux  of  the  various  state  oflScers.  The  Secretary  of  State 
very  politely  showed  me  over  the  building ;  the  State  Auditor 


THE  STATE  OFFICERS, 


65 


supplied  me  with  documents  showing  the  valuation  and  taxation 
of  the  state  ;  and  the  Treasurer,  who  locks  up  the  money  and 
disburses  it  exactly  like  the  clerk  in  a  bank,  for  which  he  is 
paid  a  salary  of  400/.  a  year,  explained  to  me  the  rate  of  taxa- 
tion in  the  State,  the  desire  they  all  had  to  pay  off  their  debt, 
the  present  increased  rate  to  which  they  submitted  for  that  ob- 
ject, the  probability  of  a  future  decrease  in  the  expense,  and  the 
general  frugality  of  the  management.  There  is  i  total  absence 
of  form  and  ceremony  about  these  gentlemen,  who  are  high  oflGloers 
of  state.  The  Secretary  of  State  acts  also  as  librarian.  He 
and  his  clerk  conduct  the  public  correspondence  and  buoiaess. 
While  I  was  there  a  man,  about  thirty,  with  his  hat  on  and  hip 
hands  in  his  pockets,  came  lounging  in,  and,  after  listening  to 
our  conversation  for  a  while,  asked  if  this  was  the  Secret  Ar^,  be- 
cause he  wanted  to  get  some  information  about  an  old  county 
road  of  which  no  record  could  be  found  in  his  county,  but  which 
he  "  reckoned  "  would  be  posted  up  at  the  capital  in  the  books 
of  the  State.  The  Secretary  immediately  went  off  to  "  fix " 
him  about  the  road.  In  the  same  way  the  Auditor  was  at 
everybody's  call,  and  the  Treasurer  also.  The  oflScers  of  State 
are  not  above  doing  their  own  work  here. 

If  there  is  not  much  official  ceremony,  there  is  a  total  ab- 
sence of  it  in  the  manners  of  the  bulk  of  the  .« :;ile.  The  nasty 
habit  of  chewing  tobacco,  and  spitting,  not  oiiiy  gives  them  a 
dirty  look,  but  makes  them  disagreeable  companions.  They 
eat  so  fast,  and  are  so  silent,  and  run  off  so  soon  when  they 
have  finished  their  meals,  that  reallj  eating  in  this  country  is 
more  like  the  feeding  of  a  parcel  of  brutes  than  men.  The 
food  is  both  various  and  plentiful,  but  it  is  generally  badly 
cooked  and  served. 

Violent  thunderstorms  are  not  infrequent.  Every  house  on 
the  prairie  is  fitted  with  a  lightning  conductor,  but  I  did  not 
hear  that  accidents  from  lightning  were  very  common. 


v. 


?\1 


66 


LOST  IN  THE  PRAIKIB. 


Again  taking  the  railway,  I  proceeded  to  Decatur,  a  station 
about  thirty  miles  east  of  Springfield,  and  drove  for  a  whole 
day  through  the  prairie  country  in  that  neighbourhood.  After 
driving  a  few  miles  through  the  enclosed  farms  which  surround 
the  town,  we  reached  the  open  unbroken  prairie,  and  turning 
short  off  the  track  on  which  we  had  hitherto  been  driving,  we 
stood  across  the  great  plain  which  stretched  out  before  us.  The 
horses  struck  without  hesitation  into  the  long  coarse  grass, 
through  which  they  pushed  on  with  very  little  inconvenience, 
although  it  was  in  many  places  higher  than  their  heads.  It 
was  not  thick,  and  parted  easily  before  them ;  then  sweeping 
under  the  bottom  of  our  waggon  it  rose  in  a  continuous  wave 
behind  us  as  we  passed  along.  The  surface  of  the  ground  was 
firm  and  smooth.  We  had  fixed  our  eye  on  a  grove  of  timber 
on  the  horizon  as  our  guide,  and  drove  on  for  about  an  hour  in 
a  straight  line,  as  we  believed,  towards  it.  But  stopping  now 
and  then  to  look  at  the  soil  and  the  vegetation,  we  found  that 
the  giove  had  disappeared.  Without  knowing  it  we  must  have 
got  into  a  hollow,  so  we  pressed  on.  But  after  two  hours' 
steady  driving  we  could  see  nothing  but  the  long  grass  and  the 
endless  prairie,  which  seemed  to  rise  slightly  all  round  us.  I 
advised  the  driver  to  fix  his  eye  upon  a  cloud  right  ahead  of 
us,  the  day  being  calm,  and  to  drive  straight  for  it.  Proceed- 
ing thus,  in  about  half  an  hour  we  again  caught  sight  of  the 
grove,  still  very  distant,  and  the  smart  young  American  driver 
"  owned  up  "  that  he  had  lost  his  way.  We  had  got  into  a  flat 
prairie  about  five  miles  square ;  one  of  the  horses  stepped  a  lit- 
tle quicker  than  the  other,  and  we  had  been  diligently  driving 
in  a  circle  for  the  last  two  hours.  We  soon  struck  upon  a  track 
which  led  us  towards  the  rising  ground  and  among  some  new 
settlements. 

One  man  here  had  entered  to  an  eighty  acre  lot  last  spring, 
had  built  his  house,  broken  about  ten  acres  and  sowed  it  with 


i 


SBTTLEES  FIRST  STAET. 


67 


wheat,  and  had  his  little  crop  of  "sod"  corn  gathered  and 
stacked  out  of  harm's  way,  close  to  his  dwelling.  The  first 
care  of  an  American  settler  on  the  prairie  is  to  provide  for  the 
first  winter.  If  he  starts  in  May  he  ploughs  a  few  acres  up, 
and  very  commonly  plants  the  Indian  corn  on  it  by  making  a 
slit  with  his  axe  on  the  tough  upturned  sod,  into  which  he  drops 
the  seed.  Kude  though  this  preparation  appears,  it  is  gener- 
ally followed  by  a  crop,  sometimes  a  very  good  one.  Having 
thus  started  his  "  3od  "  corn,  he  constructs  his  house,  and  spends 
the  rest  of  the  summer  in  "breaking"  the  prairie  in  prepara- 
ration  for  a  wheat  crop,  and  in  cutting  and  making  some  prai- 
rie hay  for  the  winter  provender  of  his  live  stock.  He  also 
plants  a  few  culinary  vegetables  and  potatoes.  In  the  end  of 
August  he  sows  his  wheat,  and,  when  that  is  completed,  he 
harvests  his  "  sod  "  corn.  This  keeps  him  out  of  the  market 
the  very  first  winter,  as  it  is  often  made  to  sufifice  for  the  food 
both  of  the  family  and  the  live  stock.  "  Hog  and  Hominy"  is 
not  infrequently  the  only  food  that  the  settler  has  to  set  before 
his  guest  during  the  first  year  of  his  possession.  And  though 
homely  it  is  wholesome.  "When  the  crop  of  Indian  corn  is  se- 
cured, there  is  time  to  begin  making  fences.  The  neighbours 
have  a  mutual  interest  in  this  and  assist  each  other.  The  fences 
are  made  of  posts  and  sawn  pine  timber ;  the  posts  of  cedar, 
seven  feet  long,  cost  Sd.  each,  and  both  posts  and  rails  are  pre- 
pared in  the  forest,  so  that  the  settler  buys  them  ready  for  his 
purpose,  at  either  the  nearest  railway  station  or  grove  of  tim- 
ber, whichever  happens  to  be  most  convenient.  The  holes  for 
the  posts  are  not  dug  out  as  with  us,  but  are  bored  with  an 
auger  made  for  the  purpose,  and  the  work  of  fencing  thus  goes 
on  with  much  neatness  and  regularity,  and  the'  fences,  being 
aU  made  in  the  same  manner  and  with  timber  of  the  same  di- 
mensions, are  very  uniform  and  substantial.  At  this  settle- 
ment we  found  the  owner  with  four  of  his  neighbours  all  busy 


i-r 


1;' 


68 


FENCES. — PANA. 


in  the  work  of  fencing,  one  boring,  one  driving  in  the  posts, 
and  the  others  sorting  and  nailing  on  the  rails. 

The  "snake"  fence,  which  is  common  in  all  the  timbered 
parts  of  America,  is  seldom  met  with  on  the  prairie,  and  there 
only  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  timber  grove.  It  is  a  very  sub- 
stantial and  excellent  fence,  but  consumes  too  much  timber  in 
any  country  where  that  article  is  somewhat  scarce. 

In  this  day's  ride,  all  the  older  settlers  with  whom  we  met, 
complained  of  the  wheat  crop  as  a  failure  this  season,  but  the 
Indian  corn  was  pretty  good.  One  man  who  had  settled  here 
two  years  ago  on  good  land,  for  which  he  then  paid  305.  an 
acre,  offered  to  sell  it  to  us,  with  his  "  improvements  "  as  they 
are  called,  viz.  his  house  and  a  little  bit  of  enclosure  which  he 
had  made,  at  62s.  Gd.  an  acre.  He  was  a  considerable  distance 
from  a  railway  station. 

My  next  stop  was  at  Pana,  about  thirty  miles  farther  south, 
where  a  junction  is  made  with  a  line  of  railway  which  leads  to 
the  Mississippi,  opposite  St.  Louis.  From  this  point  I  traversed 
the  country  some  fifty  or  sixty  miles,  and  found  the  prairie  in 
many  districts  almost  unbroken.  Here  and  there  patches  of 
unenclosed  corn  are  seen,  and  sometimes  incipient  towns.  The 
face  of  the  country  is  generally  beautifully  undulated,  with 
groves  of  timber  in  sight :  the  soil  of  blackish  colour  on  a  grey 
subsoil.  It  seemed  a  very  desirable  locality,  and  commands  the 
market  of  St.  Louis  as  well  as  that  of  Chicago.  A  French  gen- 
tleman, a  sugar  planter  in  Louisiana,  three  years  ago  bought  a 
large  tract  in  this  quarter,  of  about  25,000  acres,  at  46s.  an 
acre,  which  he  is  settling  with  a  colony  of  French  Canadians. 
He  brought  400  people  the  first  year,  and  nearly  as  many  more 
the  next.  He  sells  to  them  in  small  lots  at  66s.  an  acre,  and 
it  is  said  that  the  settlement  is  likely  to  succeed.  The  differ- 
ence in  price  is  not  all  profit,  as  he  incurs  sundry  outlays  in 
starting  the  settlers. 


LETTER   VI. 


v^ 


Pana  to  Centralla.— The  Grey  Prairie,— Best  Wheat  Soil.— Fruit.— Tobacco.— 
Vines.- Silk.— Rich  Mineral  District  South  of  Centralia.— Lines  of  Communi- 
cation with  Ocean  byNev  Orleans  and  Chicago.— Probable  Market  for  Wheat 
in  Cuba.— Description  of  Grey  Prairie.— Value  of  Oxen.— German  Settlement. 
—Large  Purchase  of  Land  by  Kentucky  Grazier.— His  Plan  and  Prospects.— 
Farina.— Trading  Spirit  of  the  People.— TJrbana.— Complaints  of  Wheat  Fail- 
ure.—Peach  Growing.— Large  Grazing  Farm.— Management  of  Stock.— Uni- 
formity of  Soil.— Coldness  of  Weather.— Steam  Plough.— Machines  for  econo- 
mizing Manual  Labour  in  greater  Demand.— Bcment.— Kentucky  Settler.— Hia 
Plan  of  managing  Eight  Thousand  Acres.— Onarga.— Its  Neighbourhood.— 
Dairy  Farming. — Artesian  Wells.— Kankakee  to  Momence.— Price  of  Land. — 
Broom  Corn. — Country  from  Momence  to  Monee. — Management  and  Produce, 
— Monee  to  Chicago. 


V> 


From  Pana  I  took  the  railway  to  Centralia,  a  station  about 
sixty  miles  further  south,  and,  in  nearly  a  straight  line,  sixty 
miles  east  from  St.  Louis  on  the  Mississippi.  It  is  the  point 
of  junction  of  the  main  line  of  the  Illinois  Central  railway  with 
its  branch  to  Chicago,  and  is  about  100  miles  north  of  the 
southern  terminus  of  that  line  at  Cairo.  The  surrounding  coun- 
try is  the  grey  prairie  soil  of  southern  Illinois,  which  produces 
the  finest  quality  of  white  wheat  in  the  State,  but  is  not  so  pro- 
lific of  Indian  corn  or  oats  as  the  black  prairie  already  de- 
scribed. It  is,  however,  a  superior  fruit  country,  and  possesses 
a  climate  suitable  for  the  culture  of  tobacco,  vines,  and  even 
of  silk,  though  the  last  branch  of  industry  has  made  no  pro- 
gress. Of  tobacco  there  is  produced  annually  nearly  a  million 
pounds  weight,  and  the  crop  of  fruit  is  valued  at  200,000Z. 

But  the  whole  country  for  the  next  thirty  or  forty  miles  is 
also  underlaid  with  valuable  minerals,  which  at  no  distant  day 


M 


•^ 


'M 


10 


SOUTHERN  ILLINOIS, 


will  be  higUy  prized.  Limestone,  marble,  freestone,  flag,  slate, 
iron,  and  coal  are  all  found  here.  The  seams  of  coal  vary  from 
two  to  nine  feet  in  thickness.  The  Du  Quoin  coal  is  of  a  glossy 
jet  black,  ignites  rapidly,  does  not  clinker,  and  yields  a  small 
amount  of  ash.  In  chemical  composition  it  closely  resembles 
the  best  steam  coal  of  Ohio  aud  Pennsylvania.  It  has  many 
properties  which  place  it  in  the  front  rank  of  western  coals, — 
freedom  from  sulphur, — cleanliness  when  employed  as  a  domes- 
tic fuel, — firmness  to  bear  distant  transportation, — and  readi- 
ness in  coking,  yielding  a  large  percentage  of  fixed  carbon. 

The  distance  of  this  part  of  the  State  from  the  great  corn 
market  of  Chicago,  nearly  300  miles,  has  hitherto  retarded  its 
settlement.  But  it  is  favourably  placed  for  the  cities  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  is  nearer  to  the  ocean  than  Chicago.  When 
the  line  of  railroad  is  completed  throughout  to  New  Orleans, 
which  it  is  expected  to  be  within  a  year  from  this  time,  southern 
Illinois  will  be  brought  within  from  500  to  600  miles  of  sea- 
going ships  at  New  Orleans,  which  is  little  more  than  half  the 
distance  by  railway  from  Chicago  to  the  Atlantic.  And  if  the 
market  of  Cuba,  where  little  or  no  wheat  is  grown,  should  be 
thrown  open  to  America,  a  circumstance  every  year  becoming 
more  probable,  the  flour  of  southern  Illinois  will  form  the  main 
supply  of  the  Havannah  market.  These  are  considerations 
worthy  of  being  kept  in  view  in  forming  an  estimate  of  the 
comparative  value  of  difierent  parts  of  the  State. 

From  Centralia  I  drove  through  the  country,  first  south- 
wards for  about  ten  miles,  and  afterwards  to  the  north  between 
twenty  and  thirty  miles.  The  aspect  of  the  country  from  the 
road  is  very  different  from  the  impression  one  is  apt  to  receive 
in  passing  rapidly  over  it  by  railway.  Instead  of  being  very 
uniform  and  flat,  as  a  stranger  is  apt  to  think  it,  there  is  much 
undulation ;  so  much  indeed  that  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
when  the  country  shall  be  fully  occupied,  the  various  farms  fenced, 


ITS  SOIL  AND  SCENEEY. 


71 


and  numerous  plantations  made,  it  will  lose  the  distinctive 
character  of  prairie,  and  assume  the  ordinary  aspect  of  a  rich 
well-clothed  rural  district.  Nor  is  the  prairie  much  more  bare 
of  wood  even  at  present  than  many  of  the  best  arable  districts 
of  Scotland.  Along  the  hollows  scooped  out  by  the  rivers  and 
streams  there  is  always  woodland.  The  woodpecker,  prairie 
fowl,  and  qufiil  are  seen  in  abundance.  The  hickory  tree  yields 
nuts,  the  maple  sugar,  and  hogs  are  turned  into  the  woods  to 
eat  the  mast.  On  the  open  ground  the  road,  which  is  a  mero 
track  over  the  prairie,  is  constantly  underg/ing  change,  for 
the  new  settler  puts  up  his  fence  on  his  boundary  line,  right 
across  the  track.  The  traveller  must  then  strike  a  fresh  track 
for  himself.  Orchards,  chiefly  of  peaches,  are  everywhere  being 
planted  near  the  homesteads.  One  farmer,  who  had  been  nine 
years  in  the  country,  told  me  that  he  and  his  family  cropped 
eighty  acres,  that  the  average  yield  of  wheat  was  twent j  to 
twenty-five  bushels  an  acre,  and  of  Indian  corn  forty.  He 
would  probably  fatten  forty  hogs,  worth  40*.  each.  He  had  a 
flock  of  inferior  merino  sheep  in  rather  low  condition.  But  the 
cattle  on  the  prairie  were  large  and  in  good  condition,  with  a 
good  skin.  Three-year-old  oxen,  large  and  in  what  we  should 
reckon  fair  condition  for  stall-feeding,  are  valued  here  at  not 
more  than  4/. 


I  must  now  ask  the  reader  to  turn  back  with  me  in  a  north- 
easterly direction,  by  the  branch  line  of  the  railway,  towards 
Chicago.  On  this  course  we  shall  have  a  distance  of '250  miles 
still  to  traverse.  For  nearly  eighty  miles  north  of  Centralia 
the  prairie  continues  of  the  same  grey  soil  which  I  have  just 
described,  more  silicious  than  the  black  soil,  and  therefore  bet- 
ter adapted  for  winter  wheat,  hardly  so  prolific  of  Indian  corn, 
nor  so  suitable  for  oats  and  potatoes.     It  Is  more  picturesque. 


M 


W 
1 


m 


•r-.tr 
:  '*{ 


N»i'j<yw"^-i 


i'  |l 


12 


BLUE  GRASS.      FARINA. 


more  wooded,  but  also,  near  the  river  bottoms,  more  liable  to 
fever  and  ague. 

Near  Effingham  there  is  a  thriving  German  settlement,  1 
met  a  Kentucky  proprietor  who,  two  years  ago,  bought  5000 
acres  in  this  quarter  for  105.  6d.  an  acre.  He  has  begun  to 
improve  it  by  breaking  up  the  prairie  for  wheat,  with  .vhich  l.e 
sows  the  land  down  with  blue  grass.  His  desire  is  to  bring  the 
land  early  into  good  grazing  ground,  and  the  Kentucky  blue 
grass  teems  to  be  an  object  of  adoration  to  Kentucky  men  :  and 
yet  eitlier  il>  or  the  soil  of  Kentucky,  or  the  climatv',  i:)ast  bo 
inferior  to  our  best  li  nestone  lands  in  England,  for  he  admitted 
that  two  acres  of  his.:  best  Line  grass  land  were  needed  to  fatten 
a  three-year-old  short  lorn  ox.  He  hopes  to  make  this  land 
profitable  by  using  tho  !'»pcn  prairie  with  all  his  cattle  for  three 
or  fouri-'onths,  while  at  its  best,  and  then  having  the  cultivated 
grass  on  his  enclosed  ground  to  feed  his  cattle,  when  the  wild 
grass  becomes  too  coarse  and  rough  in  the  autumn.  An  a 
Kentucky  grazier  he  had  found  great  advantage  by  the  intro- 
duction of  improved  breeds  of  cattle  from  England,  his  expe- 
rience being  that  a  three-year-old  short-horn  ox,  on  the  same 
land,  a,t  i  lined  as  good  size  and  better  quality  than  the  unim- 
proved breed  of  the  country  at  five  years  old. 

Farina  is  a  new  station  surrounded  by  this  fine  grey  prairie. 
Though  not  many  houses  are  in  sight  there  are  a  good  many 
settlers  in  the  district  of  which  this  is  about  to  become  the  cen- 
tre. The  stationmaster,  an  active  and  intelligent  young  man, 
had  within  the  week  opened  a  store,  in  which  he  had  large  sup- 
plies of  all  the  requisites  of  a  farmer's  household.  His  sales 
already  reached  8/.  a  day.  He  was  prepared  to  deal  in  every 
imaginable  way,  and  for  every  imaginable  thing.  He  bartered 
broad  cloth  for  wheat,  candles  for  hazel  nuts,  ribbons  for  ap- 
ples ;  in  fact  nothing  was  brought  to  him  that  he  refused  to 
take  at  a  price,  and  to  pay  for  in  kind.     There  seems  to  be  a 


UBBANA.      PEACH   GROWING. 


73 


market  for  everything  in  the  West,  the  spirit  of  "  trading "  is 
so  thoroughly  ingrained  in  the  people.  At  every  station  is 
to  be  seen  a  large  wooden  store  with  the  words  "cash  for 
wheat"  conspicuously  printed  up.  The  daily  quotations  at 
Chicago  are  known  by  telegraph  at  every  station,  and  the  price, 
less  cost  of  transport,  risk  and  profit,  are  arranged  without  dif- 
ficulty. The  wheat  this  year  on  the  southern  prairie  is  worth 
twice  as  much  per  bushel  as  that  of  the  northern  black  land. 

From  Farina  I  took  the  railway  to  Urbana,  nearly  100 
miles  farther  north,  the  intervening  country  being  parallel  with 
and  much  the  same  kind  of  land  as  that  already  described  at 
Pana  and  Decatur.  The  town  of  Urbana  is  situated  in  thf 
midst  of  a  fine  rolling  black  prairie,  with  a  solid  mass  of  some 
6000  acres  of  timber  as  a  background.  I  spent  two  days  in 
driving  through  the  prairie  in  the  neighbourhood,  taking  a 
circle  of  about  twenty  miles.  The  wheat  farmers  all  complained 
of  the  nearly  total  loss  they  had  this  year  sustained  in  their 
wheat  crop,  and  some  large  landholders,  not  farmers  by  pro- 
fession, were  so  much  alarmed  by  the  loss  of  the  crop  that  they 
had  discontinued  sowing  wheat.  One  man  spoke  of  peach  grow- 
ing as  a  matter  of  profitable  farming,  and  said  that  he  had  pro- 
duced on  his  own  land  here  at  the  rate  of  5000  bushels  an  acre. 
This  was  done,  however,  on  a  very  limited  scale.  There  was 
a  steam  thrashing  mill  at  work  here,  the  owner  of  which  as- 
sured me  that  he  could  thrash  with  it  1000  bushels  of  good 
wheat  in  a  day,  and  that  he  had  thrashed  150  bushels  in  an 
hour.  But  in  that  case  the  wheat  had  been  cut  with  little 
straw,  and  the  yield  was  very  prolific. 

Pushing  on  through  the  long  prairie  grass  for  some  five  or 
six  miles  farther,  we  came  to  the  land  of  a  large  cattle  farmer, 
a  celebrated  Illinois  grazier.  He  is  the  owner  of  several  thou- 
sand ^cres  of  land,  and  has  been  so  successful  as  a  feeder  as  on 
one  occasion  to  have  delivered  100  cattle  at  Chicago  in  one  lot, 


H 


CATTLE  FAKMING. 


the  average  weight  of  which  was  2300  lbs.  I  rode  over  his 
farm,  and  through  one  enclosure  of  2500  acres,  which  was  partly 
in  natural  prairie,  partly  in  sown  grass,  and  partly  in  wheat 
stubble,  and  part  where  the  wheat  had  never  been  cut,  as  it 
was  considered  worthless.  We  rode  backwards  and  forv^ards 
over  this  extensive  field  for  some  time,  under  the  guidance  of 
the  manager,  looking  in  vain  for  a  herd  of  250  cattle,  which 
we  at  length  came  suddenly  upon,  all  lying  among  the  long 
grass,  and  quite  hidden  by  it  until  we  were  close  upon  them. 
They  were  all  fine  animals,  rose  up  slowly,  stretching  and  lick- 
ing themselves,  100  of  them  being  four-year-old  oxen  of  great 
weight  and  fat  enough  for  the  butcher.  But  it  was  thought 
they  would  pay  for  farther  feeding,  and  the  intention  of  their 
owner  was  to  feed  the  whole  lot  out  on  Indian  corn  during  the 
winter.  The  cattle  are  fed  on  the  ground  where  the  corn  has 
been  cut,  and  they  receive  it  in  the  straw,  thus  treading  and 
apparently  wasting  it  among  their  feet.  It  is  not  lost,  how- 
ever, as  the  rule  in  feeding  is  to  put  two  hogs  in  to  fatten  with 
each  ox,  and  the  allowance  required  in  fattening  the  ox,  and 
the  two  hogs,  is  no  less  than  100  bushels  of  Indian  corn.  As 
the  whole  management  is  rude  and  rough  one  man  is  found  ca- 
pable of  attending  to  100  cattle  and  200  pigs  j  but  all  he  has 
to  do  is  to  open  the  shocks  so  that  the  cattle  may  get  readily 
at  the  corn,  and  to  supply  them  regularly  with  salt.  The  corn 
can  be  had  in  the  field  at  this  place,  which  is  some  distance 
from  the  railway,  at  about  ten  pence  a  bushel  on  the  average, 
and  at  that  price  this  kind  of  farming  is  found  remunerative. 

I  continued  my  drive  onwards  through  the  prairie,  the  most 
of  which  was  still  unbroken  and  unoccupied.  There  seemed 
no  difference  in  the  quality  of  the  soil,  which  possesses  a  re- 
markable uniformity,  the  only  apparent  distinction  being  in  the 
greater  flatness  of  some  sections,  and  consequently  the  greater 


STEAM  AND  MANUAL  LABOUR. 


H 


liability  to  injury  from  wet  seasons,  where  the  land  has  not  a 
sufficient  undulation  to  keep  it  free  from  surface  water. 

This  day  (middle  of  October)  was  bitterly  cold,  colder  than 
I  ever  felt  the  wind  at  home,  and  we  were  glad  to  get  off  the 
bare  prairie,  and  into  the  shelter  of  tlie  woodlands. 

We  passed  a  steam  plough  which  was  moving  itself  along 
a  prairie  road  to  a  farm  where  it  was  about  to  be  tried.  It  was 
a  rude-like  implement,  with  six  common  ploughs  fixed  to  a 
framework,  which  could  be  let  down  or  raised  at  the  back  of 
the  machine.  Nobody  could  tell  us  whether  it  had  succeeded 
or  not,  though  certainly  no  land  in  the  world  is  better  suited 
to  steam  culture.  But  its  general  introduction  'here  may  be 
retarded  by  the  low  value  of  the  food  of  working  cattle.  Work- 
ing oxen  can  be  kept  on  the  prairie  for  absolutely  nothing,  and 
in  winter  may  be  fed  on  prairie  hay,  which  costs  very  little  la- 
bour indeed.  And  com  for  horses  is  also  very  cheap.  There 
is  thus  not  the  same  necessity  for  saving  ox  or  horse  labour  as 
in  England.  Machines  which  economise  human  labour  are  in 
far  greater  demand. 

I  saw  also  a  rude  kind  of  mole  plough.  It  was  simply  a 
clog  of  wood  fixed  to  a  strong  rope,  which  is  drawn  by  a  pow- 
erful team  of  oxen  through  the  hollow  parts  of  a  farm,  two  feet 
below  the  surface,  and  which  thus  leaves  a  passage  for  draining 
off  the  water. 

We  stayed  all  night  at  Bement,  a  village  and  station  on 
the  Great  Western  Kailway.  Many  of  the  people  had  been 
suffering  from  ague,  and  this,  with  the  bad  wheat  crop  and  fall 
in  prices,  produced  a  considerable  depression  of  spirits.  A  few 
miles  west  we  came  upon  the  farm  of  a  Kentucky  gentleman, 
who,  with  his  brother,  had  bought  8000  acres  of  land,  fine 
gently  rolling  prairie,  which  he  was  bringing  under  cidtivation. 
They  had  800  acres  sown  with  wheat,  but  the  crop  of  the  pre- 
vious harvest  had  been  a  failure,  having  yielded  little  more 


i 


1 

is 


:?v 


76 


BSMEN.      0XAB6A. 


than  six  bushels  an  acre.  The  Indian  corn  was  a  tolerable 
crop.  He  is  now  sowing  out  his  land  as  fast  as  he  can,  his 
present  plan  being  to  have  it  all  in  blue  grass,  timothy,  and 
clover,  except  about  1000  acres,  which  is  to  be  kept  under  In- 
dian corn  for  fattening  his  cattle.  He  then  hopes  to  bo  able 
to  sell  1000  fat  cattle  annually,  and,  if  he  can  succeed  in  this, 
his  purchase  will  prove  extremely  remunerative.  The  blue 
grass  I  find  everywhere  spoken  of  as  best  adapted  for  the 
prairie.  It  is  sometimes  sown  on  the  fresh  prairie  after  the 
grass  has  been  burnt  oflf,  the  ground  being  first  well  harrowed. 
But  though  this  occasionally  succeeds,  the  process  of  breaking 
up  the  prairie  and  sowing  it  out  after  one  or  two  corn  crops  is 
preferred.  Turnips  are  grown  here  as  an  experiment  with  fair 
success.  Sown  after  wheat  harvest,  the  roots  are  now  2  to  .3 
lbs.  weight.  Large  tracts  of  land  are  for  sale  here  at  prices 
from  40s.  to  50s.  an  acre. 

Keturning  from  Bement  to  Urbana  I  drove  through  a  fine 
rich  rolling  prairie  country,  the  larger  proportion  of  which  is 
still  open  and  unoccupied.  A  nurseryman  has  established  near 
the  railway  line  a  very  thriving  and  extensive  nursery  of  va- 
rious fruit  and  forest  trees,  the  thriving  condition  of  which  suf- 
ficiently proves  the  capability  of  the  prairie  soil  for  the  growth 
of  fruit  trees  and  ornamental  timber. 

Taking  the  railway  at  Urbana  I  again  proceeded  about  for- 
ty miles  farther  north  to  the  station  of  Onarga,  a  rising  town 
on  a  fine  prairie,  which  seems  all  dotted  over  with  neat  two- 
story  houses.  I  visited  a  good  many  recent  settlers  in  this 
neighbourhood,  most  of  them  men  with  no  previous  experience 
of  a  country  life,  and  without  any  knowledge  whatever  of  the 
practical  details  of  farming.  These  persons  were  all  disheart- 
ened by  the  failure  of  the  wheat  crop.  But  others  again,  who 
had  been  brought  up  to  farming  and  understood  the  business, 
were  hopeful  and  making  every  exertion  to  ensure  success. 


ONAEGA.      DAIRY  FABMINQ. 


ft 


The  first  man  we  called  on  was  a  dairy  farmer  from  the  Eastern 
States,  an  intelligent  practical  man  who  thoroughly  understood 
his  business.  He  has  had  the  same  ill  luck  in  his  crop  as  other 
people,  but  knows  that  risk  of  seasons  is  one  of  those  risks  which 
farmers  in  all  countries  must  more  or  less  reckon  upon.  He 
has  a  dairy  stock  of  thirty-eight  cows,  and  makes  the  milk  into 
cheese.  He  can  sell  his  cheese  on  the  spot  at  42s.  a  cwt., 
which  is  not  far  short  of  the  average  price  realised  by  dairy  far- 
mers in  Scotland,  where  the  rent  is  hvjher  than  the  price  of  land 
in  Illinois.  He  finds  the  natural  prairie  grass  very  productive 
of  milk  tUl  the  month  of  September.  His  cows  yield  him  2  lbs. 
of  cheese  each,  daily,  duilng  the  period  of  good  grass ;  and 
they  can  be  foddered  very  cheaply  during  the  winter  on  prairie 
hay.  He  expects  to  improve  his  stock  and  returns  materially, 
as  he  goes  on,  by  providing  succulent  food  for  the  autumn  and 
spring. 

The  prairie  in  this  district  frequently  rises  to  rounded  hUls, 
which  though  more  picturesque  than  the  long  gentle  sweep  of 
what  is  termed  a  "  handsome  "  prairie,  is  not  so  fertile.  The 
soil  is  much  more  sandy.  There  are  several  artesian  wells 
here.  I  saw  one,  the  water  of  which  was  rushing  up  full,  through  . 
a  four-inch  pipe  from  a  boring  127  feet  deep.  It  was  iron 
tasted,  but  very  wholesome,  and  is  constantly  pouring  out  at 
this  rate. 

The  last  station  at  which  I  stopped  to  examine  che  i-^untry 
was  thirty  miles  farther  north,  at  Kankakee,  which  is  fifiy-six 
miles  south  of  Chicago.  From  this  thriving  town  i  drove  for 
about  twelve  miles  up  the  north  bank  of  the  river  to  a  town 
called  Momence,  and  thence  struck  right  through  the  prairie 
for  upwards  of  twenty  miles  to  Monee,  a  station  within  thirty- 
four  miles  of  Chicago.  The  first  part  of  the  ride  as  far  as  Mo- 
mence was  through  a  very  fine  dry  rolling  prairie,  which  comes 
down  to  the  bank  of  the  Kankakee  river,  a  broad  clear  stream, 


I 
■','■■■■  ^» 


78 


MOMENCE  TO  MONEE. 


running  over  a  limestone  bed,  the  banks  of  which  are  wooded 
and  picturesque.  Improved  land  sells  here  at  51.  to  8/.  an  acre. 
The  Indian  corn  was  good  and  well  managed,  and  I  observed 
several  fields  of  broom  com,  a  tall  plant,  exactly  resembling 
Indian  corn  and  cultivated  in  the  same  way,  but  bearing  its 
seed,  which  is  like  millet,  at  the  top.  It  is  largely  cultivated 
for  the  manufacture  of  brooms,  for  which  the  f  ed-bearing  fibres, 
which  are  tough,  elastic,  and  flexible,  are  used.  An  acre  of 
this  plant  is  much  more  valuable  than  Indian  corn.  Manu- 
fctctories  are  established  in  the  State  for  making  it  up,  and  a 
crop  which  is  in  all  respects  suitable  for  the  purpose  yields  some- 
times as  much  as  201.  an  acre. 

From  Momence  to  Monee  we  passed  through  the  same  de- 
scription of  dry  black  rolling  prairie.  The  country  is  higher 
here,  and  the  winters  more  severe.  A  settler  told  me  that  they 
had  generally  to  fodder  their  stock  for  seven  months,  for  though 
the  snow  did  not  lie  long,  the  frost  bound  the  soil  eighteen  in- 
ches down.  In  order  to  secure  the  safety  of  the  winter  wheat 
it  is  sown  among  the  growing  Indian  com,  plenty  of  the  stalk 
of  which  is  left  when  the  com  is  reaped  to  catch  and  hold  the 
snow,  which  thus  shelters  the  young  wheat  from  the  intense 
frost.  The  average  crop  of  wheat  is  twenty-five  bushels  an 
acre,  forty  to  fifty  bushels  of  Indian  com,  and  forty  of  oats. 
But  this  year  oats  proved  a  total  failure.  White  clover  and 
blue  grass  everywhere  make  their  appearance  among  the  prairie- 
grass,  where  that  is  closely  pastured.  Cattle  thrive  well  on 
these  prairies,  and  the  natural  hay  cut  in  August  or  Septem- 
ber, on  the  upland  prairie,  makes  excellent  fodder  for  both 
horses  and  cattle.  But  horses  do  not  thrive  so  well  in  the 
summer  on  the  prairie,  they  are  so  tormented  by  the  horse-fly, 
which  seems  unable  to  make  any  impression  on  the  thicker 
hides  of  the  cattle. 

Towards  evening  we  reached  Monee,  and  an  hour  or  two 


MY  FIBST  IMPRESSION  YEBIFIED. 


10 


afterwards  I  completed  my  tour  of  the  State  at  Chicago. 
About  a  fortnight  later,  on  my  return  from  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi, I  had  an  opportunity  of  verifying  my  first  impression  by 
traversing  the  country  both  in  the  former  and  in  a  now  di- 
rection. 


jr, 


LETTER   VII. 

Soil  and  Climate  of  Illinois.— Nature  of  Prairie  Soil.— Its  Chemical  Composition. 
—Rich  in  Nitrogen.— "WTieat  Culture  and  Produce.— Indian  Corn. — Facility 
of  Culture.— Oats.— jlarley.— Sorghum.— Substitute  for  Sugar-cane.— Potatoes. 
—Stock  Farming.— Prairie  Grass.- Blue  Grass.- Timothy, 

Having  now  obtained  the  necessary  information  for  forming 
an  opinion  of  Illinois,  I  propose  here  to  consider  its  advantages 
as  a  place  of  settlement. 

Soil  and  Climate. 


The  characteristic  soil  of  this  State  is  that  of  the  prairies, 
of  which  it  chiejfly  consists,  and  to  which  alone  my  attention 
was  directed.  They  comprise  many  million  -"^res  of  land, 
more  or  less  undulating, — in  their  natural  stat;  covered  with 
grass  which  is  green  and  succulent  in  May,  June,  and  July, 
and  shoots  up  in  autumn  from  three  to  six  feet  in  height. 

How  the  prairie  formation  originated  it  is  unnecessary 
here  to  inquire.  It  is  sufficient  to  know  that  we  have  a  soil 
evidently  of  great  natural  fertility,  which  for  thousands  of 
years  has  been  bearing  annual  crops  of  grass,  the  ashes  or  de- 
cayed stems  of  which  have  been  all  that  time  adding  to  the 
fertility  of  the  soil.  So  long  back  as  we  have  any  kno\vJiedge 
of  the  country,  it  had  been  the  custom  of  the  Indians  to  set 
fire  to  the  prairie  grass  in  autumn,  after  frost  set  in,  the  fire 
spreading  with  wonderful  rapidity,  covering  vast  districts 
of  country,  and  filling  the  atmosphere  for  weeks  with  smoke. 


P 


CHABACTEB  OF  THE  SOIL. 


81 


In  the  course  of  ages  a  soil  somewhat  resembling  an  ash-heap 
must  have  been  thus  gradually  created,  and  it  is  no  wonder 
that  it  should  be  declared  to  be  inexhaustible  in  fertility.  In 
Europe  such  tracts  of  fertile  country  as  the  plain  of  Lombardy 
are  known  to  have  yielded  crops  for  more  than  2000  years 
without  intermission,  and  yet  no  one  says  that  the  soil  is  ex- 
hausted. Here  we  have  a  tra  jt  naturally  as  rich,  and  with 
the  addition  of  its  own  crop?)  rotting  upon  its  surface,  and 
adding  to  its  stores  of  fertility,  all  that  time.  It  need  occa- 
sion no  surprise  therefore  to  be  told  of  twenty  or  thirty  crops 
of  Indian  corn  being  taken  in  succession  from  the  same  land, 
without  manure,  every  crop,  good  or  better,  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  season. 

Externally  the  prairie  soil  appears  to  be  a  rich  black 
mould  with  sufficient  sand  to  render  it  friable,  the  surface 
varying  in  depth  from  twelve  inches  to  several  feet,  lying  on  a 
rich  but  not  stiff  yellow  subsoil,  below  which  there  is  generally 
blue  clay.  This  drift  surface  lies  on  rocks  consisting  of  shales, 
sandstones,  and  limestones,  belonging  to  the  coal  measures. 

Its  chemical  composition  has  been  ascertained  for  me  by 
Professor  Voelcker,  consulting  chemist  to  the  Koyal  Agricul- 
tural Society  of  England,  to  whom  I  sent  four  samples  of 
prairie  soil  for  analysis,  brought  by  me  from  different  and  dis- 
tant points  of  the  lands  belonging  to  the  Illinois  Central  Kail- 
way  Company.  The  letter  of  Professor  Voelcker,  and  a  copy 
of  the  complete  analysis,  will  be  found  in  an  Appendix.  They 
bear  out  completely  the  high  character  for  fertility  which  prac- 
tice and  experience  had  already  proved  these  soils  to  possess. 
The  most  noticeable  feature  in  the  analysis,  as  it  appears  to 
me,  is  the  very  large  quantity  of  nitrogen  which  each  of  the 
soils  contains,  nearly  twice  as  much  as  the  most  fertile  soils 
of  Britain.  In  each  case,  taking  the  boU  at  an  average  depth 
of  ten  inches,  an  acre  of  these  prairies  will  contain  upwards 
4* 


•"T, 

r; 


m)H 


m 


m 


■t 


:;■ 


m 


ITS  WONDEEFUL  FERTILITY. 


of  three  tons  of  nitrogen,  and  as  a  heavy  crop  of  wheat  with 
its  straw  contains  about  fifty-two  pounds  of  nitrogen,  there  is 
thus  a  natural  store  of  ammonia  in  this  soil  sufficient  for  more 
than  a  hundred  wheat  crops.  In  Dr.  Voelcker's  words,  "  it  is 
this  large  amount  of  nitrogen,  and  the  beautiful  state  of  divi- 
sion, that  impart  a  peculiar  character  to  the  soils,  and  dis- 
tinguish them  so  favourably.  They  are  soils  upon  which  I 
imagine  flax  could  be  grown  in  perfection,  supposing  the  cli- 
mate to  be  otherwise  favourable.  /  have  never  before  analysed 
soils  which  contained  so  much  nitrogen,  nor  do  I  find  ant)  record  of 
soils  richer  in  nitrogen  than  these." 


% 


Crops. 

Though  these  soils  are  so  rich  in  nitrogen,  they  seem  to  be 
too  loose  for  wheat,  which  is  undoubtedly  a  precarious  crop 
upon  them.  The  open  prairie  country  is  so  wind-swept  in 
winter  that  snow  seldom  lies  long  to  any  depth,  and  the  young 
wheat  is  thus  left  unprotected  to  the  frost.  Should  it  escape 
that,  it  is  liable  to  be  thrown  out  by  the  rapid  changes  of 
weather  in  spring, — and  if  it  is  fortunate  enough  to  escape 
both,  it  is  sometimes  destroyed,  as  it  was  last  year,  by  its 
enormously  rapid  growth  in  forcing  summer  weather,  growing 
as  it  does  almost  on  a  muck-heap.  In  such  a  season  as  the 
last,  the  prairie  wheat  crops  of  Illinois  were  injured  precisely 
in  the  same  manner  as  our  own  in  this  country  sometimes  suf- 
fer from  a  too  heavy  dose  of  guano,  in  a  warm  moist  summer. 
The  growth  is  too  rapid,  the  vesicles  of  the  stem  burst,  and 
the  ear  does  not  fill.  I  cannot  doubt  that  Professor  Voelcker 
indicates  the  proper  remedy  for  this  in  the  application  of 
lime,  of  which  these  soils  are  comparatively  deficient.  It 
would  consolidate  the  soil,  render  the  wheat  less  liable  to  be 
hoven,  and  help  to  strengthen  the  straw,  and  render  the  growth 


¥> 


WHEAT.      INDIAN  COBN. 


83 


less  rank.  There  is  abundance  of  lime  in  the  country,  so  that 
the  remedy  is  at  hand,  and  wiU  undoubtedly  be  applied  under 
a  more  scientific  system  of  agriculture. 

Autumn  wheat  is  the  most  valuable  corn,  but  it  is  also  the 
most  diflScult  to  be  grown,  for  it  has  to  withstand  the  unpro- 
tected severity  of  winter.  The  earlier  it  is  sown  after  the 
1st  of  September  the  more  likely  it  is  to  succeed,  and  it  is 
generally  successful  when  sown  on  the  first  and  second  crops 
of  a^  newly-ploughed  prairie  which  has  been  broken  in  proper 
sejtson.  If  any  of  it  should  be  destroyed  by  frost,  the  ground 
is  sown  in  spring  with  spring  wheat,  and  this  seldom  fails. 
The  crop  varies  from  fifteen  to  forty  bushels  an  acre,  twenty 
being  reckoned  a  fair  average. 

Indian  com  usually  forms  the  third  crop,  and  if  the  land 
is  kept  clean  by  diligent  horse-hoeing,  this  crop  may  be  re- 
peated as  long  as  the  farmer  likes.  It  is  undoubtedly  the 
main  crop  of  the  piairie  farmer :  it  never  fails.  In  some  sea- 
sons it  is  more  productive  than  others,  but  the  most  ordinary 
care  will  secure  a  crop.  Under  good  management  the  yield 
often  exceeds  100  bushels  an  acre,  and,  in  thp  twiddle  districts 
of  the  State,  fifty  would  be  reckoned  a  moderate  average. 
One  great  advantage  of  this  crop  is  that  a  large  breadth  cf  it 
can  be  cultivated  by  one  man  and  a  couple  of  boys.  Two 
men  and  a  boy  with  four  horses  can  till,  100  acres.  Instances 
have  been  known  of  100  acres  of  Indian  corn  and  50  acres  of 
wheat  being  all  managed  by  a  man  with  his  two  sons  and 
their  horses.  There  is  no  hurry  in  harvesting  it.  It  can  be 
cut  at  any  time  after  it  is  ripe,  and  takes  no  injury  by  stand- 
ing either  uncut,  or  in  the  shock,  for  many  weeks.  When 
consumed  on  the  ground  by  cattle  the  shocks  are  merely  open- 
ed, and  the  cattle  shell  the  corn  for  themselves.  It  is  always 
convertible  into  money,  either  as  corn  or  pork,  and  it  is  ex- 
tensively used  in  distillation  and  in  the  manufacture  of  starch. 


f^ 


.*.^i 


'&■' ' 


i 


m 


84 


OATS.      BARLEY.      SUGAR.      POTATOES. 


Oats  are  not  so  certain  a  crop,  but  they  are  extensively 
grown  in  northern  Illinois,  and  average  about  forty  bushels 
an  acre.  They  are  light  compared  with  good  Scotch  oats,  and 
more  resemble  the  oats  of  Northern  Germany. 

Barley  is  a  valuable  crop  when  it  succeeds,  as  it  is  largely 
used  in  the  making  of  beer,  for  which  a  growing  demand  is 
springing  up  throughout  America.  I  have  little  doubt  that 
the  apjjiination  of  lime  to  the  prairie  would  render  it  a  better 
barley  il.  The  crop  averages  forty  bushels  an  acre,  on  suit- 
able soili^- 

Soi/hum  saccharatum,  or  Chinese  sugar-cane,  is  cultivated 
in  every  part  of  the  State,  as  yet  experimentally,  for  the  pro- 
duction of  sugar.  The  leaves  are  found  very  succulent  and 
nutritious  as  fodder  when  taken  off  before  the  plant  ripens.  It 
grows  precisely  like  Indian  corn,  and  can  be  produced  success- 
fully on  the  best  corn  soils.  It  must  not  be  sown  near  broom 
corn,  as  the  plants  hybridise  and  both  are  deteriorated.  Some 
carefully  conducted  experiments  show  that  the  yield  of  sugar, 
per  acre,  from  this  plant  has  amounted  to  1221  pounds,  with 
seventy-four  gallons  of  molasses,  which  is  about  two-thirds  of 
an  average  cane  sugar  crop  in  Louisiana.  It  has  been  satis- 
factorily proved  that  this  plant  may  be  made  a  substitute  for 
the  production  of  sugar  by  white  labour,  should  any  circum- 
stance hereafter  curtail  the  cane  produce  of  the  slave  States. 
The  prairie  soil  ^a  also  admirably  adapted  for  the  growth  of 
sugar  beet. 

Potatoes  are  a  productive  and  valuable  crop  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  State.  They  yield  from  three  to  seven  tons  an 
acre,  which  sell  at  from  dOs.  to  3^.  a  ton. 

The  rates  of  price  for  agricultural  produce  in  America,  as 
has  been  already  shown,  depend  on  the  increase  of  the  popu- 
lation, and  the  capability  of  the  land  to  produce  certain  crops. 
Price  is  also  very  much  modified  by  improved  means  of  rail- 


PBAIBIE  GBASS. 


85 


way  transit.  Before  railways  were  introduced  into  Illinois  tlio 
expense  of  transport  was  so  great,  that  no  farmer,  unless  he 
lived  near  a  large  town,  could  cultivate  any  kind  of  corn  prof- 
itably. Stock  farming  was  then  the  most  remunerative  kind 
of  husbandry,  and  the  men  who  have  become  wcaltlriest  in  the 
State  have  made  their  money  by  stock  farming.  We  shall 
now  therefore  devote  a  few  sentences  to  the  value  of  the  diflu^r- 
ent  kinds  of  grass  and  provender  produced  in  Illinois. 

The  prairie  grass  shoots  up  fresh  in  the  month  of  May,  and 
continues  green  and  succulent  till  August.  AU  kinds  of  stock 
thrive  on  it  during  this  period.  Cattle,  which  have  been  care- 
fully wintered,  and  are  turned  out  upon  it  in  good  condition, 
will  become  quite  fat.  Milch  cows  yield  well  upon  it,  and  Me- 
rino sheep  also  thrive.  After  August  it  shoots  up,  and  becomes 
comparatively  hard  and  wiry.  The  most  forward  stock  should 
then  be  placed  on  "  tame "  grass,  but  growing  cattle  of  all 
kinds  may  be  kept  on  the  prairie  till  November.  In  August 
and  September  it  is  usual  to  cut  as  much  prairie  hay  as  may  be 
requisite  for  winter  provender.  This  is  got  very  cheaply.  I  was 
told  by  a  large  stock-master  that  three  teams  a  day,  one  cut- 
ting with  a  machine,  one  raking,  and  one  stacking,  might  in 
these  two  months  save  as  much  hav  as  would  winter  1000  head 
of  cattle.  I  do  not  think  that  the  natural  prairie  grass  is 
nearly  thick  enough  on  the  ground  to  maintain  so  much  stock 
on  a  given  extent  of  land,  as  our  good  pasture  land  in  Eng- 
land. But  at  present  that  is  not  a  question  of  much  importance, 
inasmuch  as  unenclosed  prairie  can  be  had  in  most  parts  of  the 
country  for  nothing,  and  when  the  population  becomes  dense 
enough  tw  occupy  all  the  prairie  lands,  these  natural  grasses  will 
have  disappeared  and  have  given  place  to  corn  and  cultivated 


grass. 


The  grass  most  generally  preferred  is  the  blue  grass  (Poa 
pi'atensis),   which   is   indigenous   on   the   limestone  lands  of 


m 


in 

■m 


$f 


BLtTE  GBASS. 


America,  and  will  usurp  the  place  of  all  other  grasses  on  such 
soils  in  the  course  of  years.  It  is  said  to  yield  a  greater  return 
of  beef,  milk,  mutton,  wool,  or  pork,  than  any  of  the  cultivated 
grasses. 

Timothy  grass  is  not  adapted  for  pasture,  but  is  generally 
used  for  hay.  It  yields  from  one  and  a  half  to  two  and  a  half 
tons  an  acre. 


■i^¥ 


LETTER    VIII. 


Average  Prices  of  Agricultural  Produce  in  Illinois.— Cost  of  Labour.— Cost  of  In- 
dian Corn  in  England.— Cost  at  which  Pork  may  bo  raised  by  it.— Profit  of 
Farming  in  Illinois.- Detailed  Example.— Lands  of  Illinois  Central  Railway. 
—Advantages  of  tholr  Position.— The  Company's  Terms  of  Sale  for  Cash  or 
Credit.— Exemption  from  State  Taxes  till  paid  for.— Comparison  between 
Farming  in  England  and  ovraing  Land  in  Illinois.— Capital  necessary  to  start 
one  Farmer  in  England  sufficient  for  four  Land  Owners  in  Illinois.— Profits  of 
Sheep  Farming. — Lands  farther  West  only  apparently  cheaper. — Great  Oppor- 
tunity for  Farm  Labourers  of  Character  and  Skill. — Farming  by  Shares.— 
Facility  for  inv&Bting  Money  in  Land.— Even  the  Labourer  can  so  invest  his 
Savings  from  Time  to  Time.— Prospects  of  Emigrants  from  Towns. 

What  are  the  profits  of  farming  on  the  prairie  lands  of  Illinois  ? 
That  is  the  question  of  interest  to  the  agricultural  readers  of 
this  little  book. 

The  average  prices  of  wheat  and  Indian  corn  in  Chicago, 
since  1850,  and  those  of  beef,  pork,  cheese,  and  butter,  since 
1854,  have  been  : — 


9 


s.    d. 

Wheat,  per  bushel, 8    9 

Indian  corn, 18 

Beef,  per  lb 0    2^ 

Pork, '....02 

Cheese, 0    4 

Butter, • 0    8 

These  prices  may  be  reckoned,  on  an  average,  as  about  one 
half  the  value  of  the  same  articles  in  England.  If  the  cost  of 
production  in  the  two  countries  were  nearly  the  same,  the  value 


m 


88 


COST  OP  PRODUCTION. 


u 


hi 

v\ 

I ''I 


of  land  of  equal  quality  should  be  twice  as  great  in  England  as 
in  Illinois.  It  is,  however,  thirty  times  as  great,  and  in  this 
disparity  consists  the  advantage  which  a  settler  may  hope  to 
reap  by  buying  land  in  Illinois. 

The  cost  of  production  is  an  important  element  of  price. 
Manual  labour  is  100  per  cent,  dearer  in  Illinois  than  in  Eng- 
land ;  but  the  cost  of  keeping  horses  is  100  per  cent,  cheaper, 
and  as  a  larger  proportion  of  the  work  of  the  farm  is  done  in 
America  by  horse  power  and  machinery  than  in  England,  the 
cheapness  of  horse  labour  will  fully  compensate  the  prairie 
farmer  for  the  dearness  of  manual  labour.  The  cost  of  produc- 
tion, in  so  far  as  labour  is  concerned,  is  thus  much  alike  in  the 
the  two  countries. 

I  have  already  said  that  wheat  has  proved,  u-iiing  the  last 
two  years,  a  very  precarious  crop.  It  can  usually  be  grown 
with  safety  as  the  first,  and  sometimes  the  second  crop,  on  newly 
broken  prairie.  And  it  is  also  a  pretty  safe  crop  to  follow  grass 
land  when  first  broken  up  after  having  been  some  years  laid  to 
pasture.  But  Indian  corn  is  the  crop  of  the  prairie  farmer,  and 
there  is  always  a  market  for  it  either  by  selling  or  consuming 
it  in  the  fattening  of  hogs.  If  grown  within  150  miles  of  Chi- 
cago, it  may  be  carried  by  rail  to  that  port,  there  shipped  to 
Montreal,  and  thence  to  England,  where  it  may  be  delivered  at 
255.  a  quarter,  after  paying  all  expenses,  and  it  will  then  leave 
Is.  8c?.  a  bushel  to  the  grower.  At  such  a  price  there  would 
be  a  demand  for  any  conceivable  quantity,  as  it  would  be  the 
cheapest  food  for  horses,  cattle,  and  hogs  that  we  have  ever  had 
in  this  country.  It  was  calculated  by  Mr.  Lawes,  as  the  result 
of  experiment,  that  aboat  4  lb.  of  meal  produced  1  lb.  of  pork. 
Indian  corn  meal  at  this  price  would  cost  less  than  f  d.  a  lb., 
and  the  English  feeder  could  thus  produce  pork  at  a  cost  of  3c?. 
a  lb.  This  would  be  a  great  boon  to  the  English  farmer,  and 
leave  a  paying  price  to  the  producer  in  Illinois. 


EXPENSE  AND  PROFIT. 


89 


I  have  now  before  me  four  detailed  accounts  of  farms  of 
eighty  acres  each,  all  of  which  show  a  profit,  besides  paying  for 
the  land  itself,  from  the  first  crop.  But  these  cases  were  in- 
stances during  the  period  of  high  prices  in  1855-6.  And  the 
same  may  be  said  of  all  the  detailed  accounts  which  have  been 
recently  laid  before  the  public.  I  propose,  therefore,  to  offer 
an  estimate  based  on  the  probable  future  range  of  pricos,  and, 
to  facilitate  calculations,  will  take  100  acres  of  land ;  the  first 
crop  wheat,  and  the  following  crop  Indian  corn.  The  wheat 
crop  shall  be  cultivated  by  contract,  the  land  fenced,  broken  up, 
sown  with  wheat,  reaped  and  thrashed,  and  a  labourer's  house 
built,  during  the  first  eighteen  months.  The  second  and  fol- 
lowing crops  shall  be  managed  by  two  resident  ploughmen, 
whose  wages,  and  the  cost  of  keeping  their  four  horses,  will  be 
the  only  outlay. 


Cash  price  of  100  acres  of  land,    .....      £200 

Contract  price  of  fencing,  breaking,  sowing  with  wheat,  reaping 
and  thrashing,  and  building  a  labourer's  cottage,  and  stable 
and  shed,  ......  250 

Capital  invested  in  the  purchase  of  four  horses,  implements,  and 

harness,         .......        110 

£560 
Second  year,  wages  of  two  men,  horse  keep,  taxes,  and  accounts,        200 

£160 
Cr. 
First  crop,  wheat,  2,000  bushels,  at  3s.  6d., 
Second  crop,  Indian  corn,  6,000  bushels  at  Is.  8d., 


£350 
416       766 


Surplus  after  the  second  crop,  besides  the  value  of  the  land  and 

stock,  .  .  .  .  •  •  .       £6 

The  third  year  begins  by  the  prairie  farmer  finding  himself 
the  unencumbered  owner  of  his  land,  all  fenced  and  improved. 


I 


Wii 


■?% 


m 


oa 


BAILWAT  LANDS. 


with  a  stock  of  ^orses  and  uuplements,  and  the  whole  of  Iuh 
original  capital  in  his  pocket.  He  may  continue  to  crop  iiia 
farm  with  Indian  corn,  from  which  he  will  reap  very  large  re- 
turns on  his  capital. 

The  foregoing  example  has  reference  to  a  capitalist  pur- 
chaser, not  a  working  farmer.  The  100  acres  may  be  multi- 
plied by  any  number  for  which  there  is  adequate  capital,  and 
the  results  ought  to  be  the  same  in  proportion.  There  appears 
to  be  thus  a  very  ample  surplus  in  the  way  of  annual  return, 
whilst  the  value  of  land  itself  will  probably  treble  within  ten 
years  from  the  mere  growth  of  population. 

But  a  working  farmer  will  not  ouly  receive  the  same  an- 
nual dividend  from  his  capital,  but  will  also  take  to  himself  the 
full  rate  of  wages  which  is  allowed  for  hired  labour  in  this  es- 
timate. And  he  may,  moreover,  avail  himself  of  the  credit 
given  by  the  Illinois  Central  Eailway  Company  to  the  purcha- 
sers of  their  lands. 

That  Company  he*  *-  mil  1,300,000  a^  res  of  land  to  sell.  It 
is  situated  alon^^  theli  iine  of  railway,  chiefly  within  five  miles 
on  either  side,  and  affordii  every  variety  of  soil,  climate,  and 
situation  to  be  found  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  They  ofier  their 
lands  at  prices  which,  considering  situation,  quality,  and  terms 
of  payment,  are  the  cheapest  I  met  with  in  America.  Every 
facility  for  the  transport  of  produce  to  market  is  at  tlie  com- 
mand of  a  settler  on  their  lands.  At  every  nine  or  ten  miles 
there  is  a  station,  with  an  electric  telegraph,  where  the  latest 
news  of  the  markets  may  be  learned ;  while  there  is  usually  a 
store  at  the  station  tor  the  sale  of  produce,  and  the  purchase  of 
necessaries.  Their  terms  of  payment  for  the  land  are  either 
cash  with  a  proportional  discount  in  the  price,  or  a  long  credit 
with  a  low  late  of  interest.  So  confident  do  they  feel  in  the  in- 
creasing value  of  their  land,  that  they  readily  leave  the  entire 
price  of  it  as  a  mortgage  to  be  repaid  by  annual  instalments 


FARMING  OR  OWNING  LAND? 


01 


out  of  the  produce  of  the  land  itself.  Purchasers  from  them 
obtain  the  further  important  advantage  of  exemption  from  all 
State  taxes  imtil  the  whole  instalments  of  the  price  have  been 
paid  01  i,  and  this  usually  extends  over  the  first  seven  years. 

Let  us  consider  the  advantage  of  this  credit  plan  to  the 
father  of  several  sons  in  this  countT  o  whom  he  may  be 
anxious  to  give  the  means  of  start'  If  he  desires  to 

place  one  in  a  farm  in  England,  of  *V   >  le  must  provide 

him  wiih  a  capital  of  2,000/.  But  i  ....,tc  .d  of  making  his 
son  the  tenant  of  another  man,  he  determines  to  purchase  a  farm 
of  the  same  extent  for  him  on  the  prairie,  he  may  pay  the  advance 
interest  of  the  purchase  money  of  the  land,  fence  it,  build  on 
it,  stock  it,  and  sow  the  first  crop  for  about  5001  Two  years 
elapse  before  the  first  instalment  of  the  price  is  due,  and  by 
that  time,  with  good  management,  the  land  should  have  yielded 
enough  to  pay  it,  besides  all  the  expenses  of  management.  An 
intelligent,  prudent  man,  with  500/.  in  his  pocket,  may  rely  on 
finding  that  sum  sufficient  to  start  him  successfully  on  320 
acres  of  prairie  land,  if  he  avails  himself  of  this  credit  system. 

His  position  wUl  be  this.  He  enters  inti^  a  contract  with 
the  Company  for  the  purchase  of  320  acres  of  their  land,  ax.  the 
price  of  50s.  an  acre.  He  pays  6  per  cent,  advance  interest 
upon  this,  but  he  pays  nothing  further  for  two  years.  His  first 
instalment,  one  fifth  of  the  price,  then  becomes  payable,  and 
each  year  thereafter,  till  all  is  paid,  another  fifth.  His  account 
will  stand  thus : — 


;i** 


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Two  years'  advance  interest  on  price  of  land,      ....      £48 
Contract  price  of  fencing  100  acres,  brepliing  it,  sowing  witli 
wlieat,  reaping  and  thrashing,  and  for  building  a  house,  sta- 
ble, and  shed, 300 

Price  of  horses,  implements,  and  harness, 110 


£458 


4^, 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0 


1.1 


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L£    112.0 


L25  III  !.4 


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PhotDgraphic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)873-4503 


A 


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tx 
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92 


SHEEP  FABMINa. 


Value  of  first  crop, 


350 


£108 


Second  year :  contract  for  fencing  another  100  acres,  sowing  it 

with  wheat,  reaping  and  thrashing, 150 

Wages  paid  and  horse  keep  for  cultivating  100  acres  of  Indian 

corn, 150 

£408 


His  200  acres  of  corn  crop  will  now  yield  him  from  600/.  to 
700/.,  thus  more  than  recompensing  his  outlay,  and  leaving 
plenty  in  hand  to  pay  his  first  instalment,  and  to  proceed  with 
the  vigorous  cultivation  of  the  land.  The  same  sum  which 
would  be  needed  to  start  one  son  as  a  farmer  of  another  man's 
high-rented  land  in  England,  would  thus  start  four  sons  as  the 
owners  of  farms,  fenced,  stocked,  and  under  crop,  on  the  fine 
prairie  soils  of  Illinois. 

I  have  in  a  previous  letter  pointed  out  the  profitable  nature 
of  sheep  farming  in  Illinois,  and  would  again  refer  to  it  here, 
as  an  object  well  worthy  of  the  consideration  of  young  emigrant 
farmers.  Merino  sheep  prove  very  healthy,  and  can  be  kept 
cheaply  on  the  prairie.  Their  wool  is  nearly  as  valuable  in 
America  as  in  England,  and  the  supply  is  not  adequate  to  the 
increasing  home  consumption  of  that  country.  A  large  stock  of 
sheep  may  be  purchased  with  a  small  capital.  I  cannot  help 
thinking,  that  the  safest  speculation  for  an  enterprising  immi- 
grant farmer  would  be,  the  purchase  of  a  section  of  land  in  the 
midst  of  untouched  prairie,  which  he  would  enclose  and  crop, 
for  the  purpose  of  wintering  a  large  sheep  stock,  which  he  might 
graze  on  the  open  prairie  during  the  summer,  at  no  other  cost 
than  that  of  herding. 

The  price  of  the  land  is  the  least  consideration  that  a  Brit- 
ish emigrant  need  take  into  his  calculations.  For  if  he  avails 
himself  of  the  credit  system,  he  may  enter  on  as  much  or  as 


CAPITAL  NEEDIH)  BY  EMIGRANTS. 


98 


little  as  he  likes,  for  an  immediate  payment  of  only  35.  an  acre ; 
and  his  next  payment  is  not  due  untU  he  has  been  two  years 
in  possession,  by  which  time  the  produce  of  the  land  ought  to 
be  much  more  than  suflScient  to  meet  it.  The  travelling  ex- 
penses, the  expense  of  maintenance,  the  building  of  a  house, 
and  the  necessary  outlays  for  stock,  are  nearly  as  great  to  start 
a  small  farm  of  forty  acres  as  one  of  four  times  the  extent.  A 
man  with  his  wife  and  four  children,  could  not  transpc  rt  him- 
self and  them  from  this  country  to  Illinois,  and  place  himself 
comfortably  even  on  a  forty  acre  farm,  for  less  than  100/.  But 
20/.  more  would  suffice  to  place  him  in  a  farm  of  160  acres.  I 
cannot,  therefore,  advise  men  who  are  unable  to  scrape  more 
together  than  will  merely  pay  their  travelling  expenses  to  go 
to  Illinois.  And  far  less  can  I  advise  them  to  go  farther  west. 
Suppose  they  could  obtain  land  in  Iowa  or  Minnesota,  400  miles 
farther  away,  at  only  half  the  price,  the  saving  of  Is.  6d.  an 
acre  in  their  deposit,  would  never  compensate  even  the  cost  of 
travel  for  the  additional  distance,  while  every  article  which 
they  require  to  purchase  must  bear  an  enhanced  price  from  the 
same  cause.  , 

But  there  is  one  class  of  our  labouring  population,  for  whom 
Illinois  oflfers  great  encouragement.  Young  men  of  intelligence 
and  prudence,  who  have  been  brought  up  to  agricultural  pur- 
suits, and  are  acquainted  with  the  management  of  land  and 
live  stock,  may  do  very  well  by  hiring  land  from  the  owner. 
They  get  the  farm  fenced,  stocked  with  necessary  buildings, 
and  with  all  requisites,  except  labour,  for  carrying  it  on.  They 
furnish  the  labour,  and  share  the  produce  with  the  owner.  This 
is  a  transaction  which  is  very  common  in  Illinois ;  it  answers  the 
purpose  of  both  parties ;  and  a  prudent  active  man  who  enters 
upon  it,  will  generally  in  a  few  years  realise  enough  to  start 
himself  in  a  farm  of  his  own.  I  heard  of  many  instances  of 
great  success  attending  this  sort  of  arrangement,  and  from  my 


i- 


m 


m 


PACILITT  IN  ACQUIEING  LAND. 


personal  knowledge,  I  am  sore  that  there  are  many  hundreds 
of  our  northern  agricultural  labourers  possessed  of  the  requisite 
skill  and  prudence,  to  ensure  success.  To  such  men,  I  should 
be  happy  to  oflfer  any  information  in  my  power,  on  application 
being  made  to  me. 

One  great  advantage  that  an  emigrant  of  any  class  pos- 
sesses in  the  Western  States  is,  the  facility  with  which  land  may 
be  acquired ;  not  merely  its  cheapness,  but  the  readiness  and 
simplicity  with  which  it  may  be  legally  transferred.  Every 
five  pounds  that  a  man  saves,  may  at  once  be  invested  in  land. 
He  needs  to  run  no  risk  of  bank  failures ;  and  his  landed  in- 
vestment is  constantly  improving  in  value,  though  he  does  noth- 
ing whatever  with  it.  The  same  process  is  going  on  at  home, 
but  the  labouring  man  at  home  cannot  share  in  an  advantage 
to  which  he  himself  contributes,  as  the  land  is  too  dear  for  him, 
and  the  cost  of  transferring  a  small  parcel  of  it  is  nearly  as 
great  as  the  cost  of  the  land  itself.  He  is  thus  slut  out  alto- 
gether from  the  hope  of  ever  being  the  possessor  of  land,  and 
cannot  therefore  participate  in  that  increasing  value  which  is 
the  good  fortune  of  the  rich  alone. 

Though  I  have  doubts  of  the  success  r-^  even  prudent  men 
who  have  no  more  capital  than  their  wit&  i  no  agricultural 
knowledge  or  experience,  I  feel  bound  to  Fay  that  such  is  not 
the  general  opinion  of  experienced  men  in  Illinois.  One  gen- 
tleman of  high  reputation  and  f  jrtune  in  Chicago,  assured  me 
that  he  knew  innumerable  instances  of  people  brought  up  in 
towns,  with  no  knowledge  of  country  life,  and  very  limited 
means,  who  had  blundered  into  experience  and  comfort  in  a 
year  or  two.  In  this  country,  Jie  said,  that  every  necessary  of 
life  is  sluttishly  plentiful ;  that  it  is  not  possible  here  to  find  a 
man  hungry ;  that  nature  is  so  abundant  that  no  prudent  man 
can  help  becoming  rich ;  and  that,  though  they  may  sometimes 
have  a  set  back  for  a  time,  they  will  soon  rebound  and  take  a 
fresh  start, — and  that  there  is  plenty  for  all. 


LETTER   IX. 


?;i'*! 


The  Agne :  Opinion  of  a  leading  Physician.— EaBily  curable.— Wisconsin.— 
Life-guardsman  turned  Implement  Maker.— Success  of  Emigrants.— Madison. 
—Milwaukee.— Its  Trade  Facilities.— Schools.-Publio  Buildings.— Catholic 
Church.- Western  Shore  of  Lake  Michigan.- General  Nature  of  Country.— 
Green  Bay.— Early  French  Settlements.- Their  Hold  in  the  North- West.— 
Character  of  various  Races  of  Settlers.— Price  of  Land.— Its  Value  dependent 
on  cheap  Access.— Interest  of  Money.— Credit  low.—"  Custom"  pleaded  for 
Abuses.- London  Carpenter's  Experience  as  a  Settler.— The  Mississippi.— 
Nails  and  Glass  only  allowed  by  American  Government  to  their  Surveying 
Engineers.— River  Steamers.— Anecdotes.-Lake  Pepin.— St.  Croix. 


I ILVVE  already  referred  to  the  risk  of  fever  and  ague  which 
every  emigrant  to  the  western  states  must  face.  Before  leaving 
ChicajgO  I  had  an  interview  with  a  leading  physician,  who  has 
been  twenty  years  in  practice  in  Illinois,  and  who  kindly  fa- 
voured me  with  his  experience  on  this  subject.  Hs  has  found 
ague  easily  curable  by  proper  management.  It  is  usually  pre- 
ceded by  diarrhoea  and  followed  by  fever,  and  the  whole  may 
be  greatly  mitigated,  and  even  averted,  by  preventive  and  re- 
medial treatment.  It  is  caused  in  his  opinion  by  excessive 
heat  when  it  follows  a  moist  summer.  Summers  of  great  heat, 
when  the  thermometer,  for  four  or  six  weeks,  is  continuously 
92°,  94",  or  so  in  the  shade,  are  always  followed  by  an  un- 
healthy season.  Such  seasons  have  been  observed  to  come  in 
succession  at  intervals  of  about  ten  years.  For  some  years 
back  there  has  been  little  sickness  in  the  western  states.  But 
last  year  there  WiiS  a  great  deal.  In  all  new  countries  in  these 
latitudes,  especially  after  the  ground  is  newly  broken,  he  con- 


kn 


i;:;;^ 


96 


TIIH  AGUE.      WISCONSIN. 


aiders  strangers  more  or  less  liable  to  it.  But  settlement, 
drainage,  more  comfortable  houses,  and  care  in  diet  and  clothing 
gradually  lessen  its  eflfects.  In  New  York  State,  in  the  Gen- 
esee valley^  about  twenty-five  years  ago,  people  were  extremely 
subject  to  ague.  Now  it  is  little  known.  Settlers  coming 
from  Europe  are  most  liable  to  it  when  they  come  in  summer. 
Arriving  at  the  cool  season  in  autumn,  and  going  into  a  good 
house,  with  care  not  to  expose  themselves  to  hard  labour  in  the 
sun,  and  to  keep  themselves  well  clothed,  they  are  less  likely 
to  be  attacked.  Old  people  in  his  opinion  ought  not  to  come 
at  all, — it  is  very  fatal  to  them.  Salts  or  purgative  medicines 
taken  at  the  commencement  of  the  attack  are  very  injurious, 
and  he  has  found  that  the  English  emigrants  are  generally  pro- 
vided with  such  medicines,  and  take  them  at  once,  and  with- 
out waiting  for  advice,  on  the  plea  that  salts  never  did  any 
body  any  harm.  Nothing  is  more  difiicult  than  to  remove  the 
bad  eflfects  of  this  dose.  The  doctor  said  that  Chicago  was  now 
almost  free  from  ague,  that  typhus  had  taken  its  place  in  a 
greatly  modified  extent,  and  that  pneumonia  and  rheumatism 
were  the  only  other  diseases  that  were  severe. 

Though  I  paid  a  second  visit  to  Illinois  before  leaving  the 
Western  States  I  have  now  completed  all  that  I  mean  to  say 
upon  it,  and  will  ask  the  reader  to  accompany  me  into  Wiscon- 
sin, and  thence  up  the  Mississippi  to  St.  Paul's  in  Minnesota. 
The  same  railway  facilities  are  found  in  the  southern  part  of 
Wisconsin  as  in  Illinois. 

In  the  railway  carriage  I  met  a  SheflSeld  man,  who,  though 
only  thirty-five,  has  been  nine  years  in  the  country,  and  had 
been  previously  for  some  years  a  soldier  of  the  1st  Life  Guards. 
He  had  been  brought  up  a  mechanic,  started  in  Cincinnati  as  a 
maker  of  files  when  he  first  came  out,  and  subsequently  re-? 
moved  to  this  State  as  a  partner  in  an  agricultural  implement 
factory.     He  has  been  doing  a  large  business  here,  and  a  profit* 


MADISON.      MILWAUKEE. 


97 


able  one  till  this  year,  when  the  general  failure  of  crops  has 
dried  up  the  source  of  his  trade.  He  told  me  that  the  majority 
of  the  emigrants  are  people  from  towns  who  never  saw  a  fur- 
row turned  tiU  they  came  here,  that  they  have  everything  to 
learn,  great  hardships  to  endure,  but  that  with  prudence  and 
sobriety  success  is  so  certain  that  he  had  never  seen  an  instance 
of  it  otherwise.  He  said,  moreover,  that  such  people,  with 
dear-bought  knowledge,  turn  out  tolerable  farmers  in  a  short 
time. 

The  country  towards  Madison,  the  capital  of  the  State,  is 
dry  prairie,  lying  on  gravel  for  most  of  the  way.  The  wheat 
crop  here  has  been  only  half  a  crop  of  inferior  quality,  oats 
nearly  a  failure,  but  Indian  corn  good.  Madison  is  prettily 
situated  on  a  high  ridge  between  two  lakes. 

But  though  this  is  the  capital,  Milwaukee,  on  Lake  Michi- 
gan, is  really  the  chief  town  of  Wisconsin.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  picturesquely  situated  towns  of  any  size  that  I  have  seen 
in  the  west.  It  is  placed  on  both  sides  of  a  river  which  falls 
into  a  fine  bay  of  Lake  Michigan,  the  town  rising  from  the 
valley  of  the  river  on  either  side  to  high  blufis  facing  the  lake. 
The  river  is  navigable  from  the  lake,  and  vessels  discharge  and 
land  their  cargoes  direct  into,  and  from,  the  granaries  and 
warehouses  which  line  its  banks.  Tramways  from  the  various 
lines  of  railroad  run  along  the  other  sides  of  these  warehouses, 
so  that  the  greatest  facilities  are  afforded  for  the  transport  and 
handling  of  produce  and  merchandise.  The  extent  to  which 
labour  is  economised  in  this  way  both  here  and  at  Chicago  is 
really  wonderful.  By  the  aid  of  steam  power  half  a  million  of 
bushels  of  grain  can  be  daily  received  and  shipped  through  the 
granaries  of  Chicago,  the  whole  of  it  being  weighed  in  draughts, 
of  400  bushels  at  a  time,  as  it  passes  from  the  railroad  to  the 
vessel.    This  can  be  done  at  a  cost  of  a  farthing  a  bushel,  and 


a 


/ 


I^J^'^- 


98 


EDUCATION  AND  RELIGION. 


SO  quiet  is  the  whole  process  that  there  is  little  external  evidence 
of  much  business  going  on. 

The  finest  church  in  Milwaukee  is  the  Eoman  Catholic  Ca- 
thedral, with  the  palace  of  the  bishop  on  one  side  of  it,  and  an 
orphan  asylum  on  the  other.  There  are  many  handsome  pri- 
vate residences,  some  built  of  white  marble,  and  the  principal 
hotel  of  the  city,  the  Newhall  House,  is  very  little  inferior  either 
in  size,  architecture,  or  interior  fittings  and  arrangements  to 
the  Hotel  de  Louvre  in  Paris.  There  is  a  population  of 
60,000  in  this  city,  which  only  twenty-three  years  ago  was  the 
site  of  a  single  log  cabin,  but  which  now,  in  the  one  month  of 
October,  ships  a  million  bushels  of  wheat !  From  the  bluff's  the 
lake  looks  exactly  like  the  sea,  as  no  opposite  shore  can  be  seen, 
and  the  white-crested  waves  come  rolling  into  the  harbour  just 
as  they  do  on  the  Atlantic,  though  not  with  the  same  long  and 
heavy  swell.  There  are  numerous  schools  in  the  city,  free  to 
all,  and  well  endowed  by  the  State.  Education  in  the  West- 
ern States  seems  to  be  far  more  highly  prized  than  religion. 
I  have  often  thought  that  the  status  of  the  schoolmaster  and 
clergyman  in  Britain  should  be  more  nearly  equal,  but  the  lat- 
ter ought  not  to  be  below  the  former,  which  is  practically  the 
case  here.  The  Roman  Catholics  are  certainly  an  exception, 
for  wealth  is  lavished  on  their  churches  and  cathedrals, — wealth 
drawn  from  the  poor  Irish,  who,  though  they  can't  save  money 
for  themselves,  are  liberal  to  holy  church.  If  one  may  judge 
from  their  edifices  the  Eoman  Catholics  are  making  head  in 
America,  not  so  much  in  the  way  of  converts,  but  because  the 
Yankees  and  the  Protestant  settlers  are  too  keen  on  business 
to  pay  suflScient  attention  to  religion.  The  Catholics  are  more- 
over the  only  church  in  America  which  is  bound  together  by  an 
all  pervading  system  of  union. 

From  Milwaukee  I  proceeded  by  rail  nearly  100  miles  fur- 
ther to  Lake  Winnebago  at  Fond-  du-lac.    The  country  most 


fur- 
most 


EABLY  SBTTLEMBNT  BY  FKBNCH. 


09 


of  the  way  is  timbered  like  Canada ;  indeed,  all  the  western 
shore  of  Lake  Michigan  is  so  There  are  oak  openings  here 
and  there,  which  are  little  prairies  of  rather  sandy  soil  in  the 
midst  of  the  woods,  and  which  are  all  cultivated.  The  wood- 
land is  a  reddish  soil  lying  on  gravelly  hills,  which  is  found  to 
produce  a  good  quality  of  wheat,  the  Milwaukee  wheat  holding 
a  high  character  in  the  American  market.  The  Indian  com 
seemed  a  small  crop,  and  not  much  cultivated.  After  passing 
Horicon  we  enter  on  fine  prairie,  which  continues  for  many 
miles  through  the  county  of  Marquette,  but  all  good  land  here, 
where  improved,  is,  if  anything,  dearer  than  in  Illinois.  To 
the  north  of  this  the  country  is  marshy  or  sandy,  and,  still  far- 
ther north,  it  is  all  covered  with  pine  timber, — ^the  great  tim- 
ber region  of  Wisconsin,  which  yields  more  than  500  millions 
of  feet  of  lumber  in  a  year.  Green  Bay,  which  is  a  sheltered 
arm  of  Lake  Michigan,  100  miles  long  and  30  broad,  was  the 
site  of  one  of  the  earliest  French  settlements  more  than  200 
years  ago. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  that  before  the  pilgrim  fathers  land- 
ed at  Plymouth,  nay,  even  before  the  English  cavaliers  settled 
in  Virginia,  this  far  western  country  had  been  discovered  by 
the  French,  who  had  sailed  up  the  St.  Ijawrence  and  the  lakes 
from  Quebec,  and  whose  missionaries,  e,:^  early  as  1624,  were 
preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  Indians  on  lakes  Huron  and  Su- 
perior. By  degrees,  under  the  policy  jgf  Louis  XTV.,  they 
stretched  to  the  Mississippi,  and  were  the  first  Europeans  who 
held  that  magnificent  valley  from  nearly  its  source  to  New  Or- 
le*  .iS.  For  a  century  they  continued  to  hold  the  entire  control 
of  the  North-West,  till,  in  1758,  Wolfe's  victory  over  Mont- 
calm at  Quebec  wrested  this  dominion  from  the  French.  The 
poor  French  Canadians  of  Lower  Canada  are  the  only  record 
of  their  power,  and  Green  Bay,  one  seat  of  their  first  appear- 
ance in  the  west,  is  now  being  rapidly  settled  with  Germans 


131 


'•'i 

n 


100 


CHEAP  LAND.      UIQU  BATB  OF  INTBREST. 


and  Norwegians.    From  this  point  there  has  been  a  water 
connection  formed  with  the  Mississippi. 

I  was  glad  to  learn  that  the  Scotch  settlers  bear  a  high 
character  in  the  west.  They  and  the  Germans  are  the  most 
industrious,  prudent,  and  successful.  The  Irish  are  met  with 
everywhere,  but  generally  improvident,  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water,  hanging  on  about  the  towns,  doing  all  the 
dirty  and  hard  work,  and  the  menial  offices  at  the  hotels.  The 
English  or  Scotch  are  never  met  with  in  such  situations,  the 
Germans  often,  the  Irish  and  Negroes  always. 

There  is  abundance  of  land  to  be  had  in  "Wisconsin.  I 
was  oflfered  6000  acres  of  prairie,  300  miles  west  of  Lake  Mich- 
igan, on  a  river  which  flows  into  the  Mississippi  at  Lake  Pepin, 
for  125.  an  acre ;  and  woodland,  near  the  north-western  shore 
of  Lake  Michigan,  may  be  had  at  the  same  price.  Farther 
north  and  west,  there  are  thousands  of  acres  to  be  had  at  5^. 
an  acre.  But  these  out  of  the  way  places  are  only  seemingly 
cheap.  The  cost  of  transport,  so  long  as  there  are  no  railways, 
renders  the  crops  of  the  settler  valueless.  A  man  will  make  a 
better  bargain  who  pays  505.  an  acre  for  his  land,  when  he  can 
sell  his  first  crop  for  much  more  than  the  difference  of  price. 

The  interest  of  money  lent  on  mortgage  of  real  estate,  is 
from  12  to  18  per  cent.  There  is  no  doubt  the  risk  of  having 
the  property  thrown  on  one's  hands,  but  the  legitimate  profits 
in  this  vast  new  country  afford  a  very  high  rate  of  interest.  The 
credit  of  the  State  has  been  also  somewhat  damaged  by  the 
shameful  conduct  of  its  public  men.  I  had  heard  rumours  of 
this  before,  but  did  not  believe  it  till  it  was  proved  to  me  on 
the  spot.  The  governor  of  the  time,  and  the  majority  of  both 
branches  of  the  State  legislature,  were  convicted,  on  their  own 
confession  before  a  committee  of  investigation,  of  having  been 
systematically  bribed  by  a  railway  company,  who  thereby  se- 
cured a  vast  grant  of  public  land !    The  governor  got  20,000/., 


M 


"custom"  pleadbd  fob  abuses. 


101 


each  Senator  2,000/.,  and  each  member  of  the  Lower  House 
1000/.,  luckily  in  railway  shares,  which  at  present  are  of  very 
little  value.  Who  was  the  governor  ?  A  man  of  no  note,  pur- 
posely chosen  for  his  obscurity,  because  obnoxious  to  neither 
political  party  ;  for  whenever  parties  are  nearly  balanced  they 
seek  out  for  the  highest  office  men  of  no  prominence,  as  the 
really  able  men  have  offended  one  side  or  the  other. 

It  is  amusing,  when  one  is  used  to  it,  to  see  the  cool  way 
in  which  the  public  in  these  western  States  are  trampled  upon 
by  officials,  and  the  servants  of  steam-boats  and  railway  com- 
panies, and  how  quietly  they  submit  to  it.  I  had  taken  a 
through  ticket  like  other  passengers,  "  from  Fond  du  Lac  to 
Chicago."  Such  were  the  terms  on  the  ticket,  and  of  course 
that  was  our  contract  with  the  company.  We  reached  a  town, 
and  were  told  we  must  get  into  and  pay  for  an  omnibus  to 
convey  us  between  the  stations.  We  proceeded.  One  poor 
delicate  German  wished  to  be  put  down  at  an  intermediate 
station,  on  another  line,  for  which  he  had  taken  his  through 
ticket.  The  bus  drew  up,  dropped  him  ankle  deep  in  mud  in 
the  middle  of  the  road ;  the  driver  never  left  his  seat,  but  told 
him  to  catch  his  trunk,  a  very  large  one,  trundled  it  off  the  roof, 
nearly  upsetting  the  poor  German,  and  the  last  we  saw  of  him 
he  was  hauling  the  trunk  through  the  mud  to  the  station. 
Not  a  porter  offered  the  slightest  aid.  I  indignantly  remarked 
to  the  rest  of  the  passengers  that  this  was  shameful,  and  ex- 
pressed surprise  that  a  free  people  would  submit  to  such  inso- 
lent imposition.  I  said  that  in  my  country  the  railway  com- 
pany would  be  bound  by  law  to  fulfil  their  contract,  and  to  pro- 
vide at  their  own  cost  the  necessary  transport  from  station  to 
station.  An  American  answered  that  it  was  certainly  very 
bad,  but  "  guessed  that  the  company  could  defend  themselves 
at  law  by  the  plea  of  *  custom.'"  I  expressed  astonishment, 
when  a  'cute  Yankee  beside  me  interposed,  "  I  reckon,  stran- 


f 


102 


A  LO]!a)ON  CARPENTER'S  EXPERIENCE. 


ger,  that  yon  are  about  right.  I  don't  think  custom  would 
carry  it.  Least  I  knew  a  case  where  it  didn't.  Two  steamero 
were  racing  on  the  Mississippi.  A  passenger  was  seen, — both 
made  for  him.  A  plank  was  shot  ashore  fro...  the  foremost 
boat  and  he  stepped  on  to  it.  But  they  were  in  such  a  hurry 
that  they  drew  in  the  plank  and  threw  him  into  the  river.  An 
action  was  raised,  and  the  owners  of  the  boat  pleaded  *  custom.* 
But  the  judge  held  that  a  contract  to  *  carry '  could  not  be  ful- 
filled by  throwing  a  man  into  the  water,  notwithstanding  cus- 
tom." "  Was  the  man  drowned  ?  "  said  I.  "  No,  but  he  war 
darn't  near't." 

On  my  way  across  the  State  to  Prairie  du  Chien  I  met  a 
Comishman,  who  had  worked  for  many  years  in  London  at  his 
trade  as  a  carpenter,  and  who  had  come  out  to  Wisconsin  and 
bought  eighty  acres  of  "  oak  opening."  His  first  crop  of  wheat 
yielded  twenty  bushels  an  acre ;  and  the  second,  notwithstand- 
ing the  unfavourable  season,  fifteen  bushels  of  spring  wheat, 
which  he  was  then  selling  at  35.  9d.  a  bushel.  Besides  looking 
after  his  farm,  he  works  at  his  trade,  at  which  he  earns  5s.  a 
week  more  than  he  used  to  make  in  England.  But  a  trades- 
man without  land  will,  in  his  opinion,  spend  all  the  difference 
in  keeping  himself.  Men  with  families,  he  said,  could  get  on 
better  here  than  at  home,  provided  they  can  buy  land  enough 
to  support  their  families,  and  when  they  save  any  money  they 
can  buy  more  land,  an  impossibility  at  home.  He  thinks  that 
agricultural  labourers  would  benefit  by  a  change  to  the  West 
more  than  any  other  class,  because  their  wages  at  home  are  so 
low,  and  their  peculiar  skill  is  the  thing  most  needed  in  an  ag- 
ricultural country. 

At  Prairie  du  Chien  we  found  ourselves  on  the  Mississippi, 
the  Father  of  Waters,  which  at  this  point  is  nearly  2000  miles 
from  the  sea.  This  was  formerly  a  French  trading  post,  and 
more  recently  a  frontier  post  of  the  Americans.     There  is  here 


THE  MISSISSIPPI. 


103 


a  loop-holed  barrack  capable  of  lodging  400  men.  It  was 
discontinued  soon  after  the  laac  fight  with  the  Indians  here  in 
1833,  the  frontier  garrison  having  since  that  time  moved  many 
hundred  miles  farther  west.  It  is  now  abandoned  and  going 
to  ruin.  The  American  system,  as  I  was  informed  by  an  en- 
gineer oflScer  of  the  service,  is  to  spend  no  money  in  keeping 
up  establishments  after  the  object  has  been  accomplished. 
Their  surveying  oflScers  on  the  frontier  are  allowed  only  nails 
and  glass,  and  with  these  they  may  erect  quarters  if  they  like. 
If  not,  they  may  live  in  their  tents, — at  all  events,  they  are  not 
permitted  to  spend  public  money.  ,  * 

We  here  embarked  on  the  Mississippi  for  St.  Paul's,  a  voy- 
age up  the  river  of  300  miles.  The  river  at  this  place  is  about 
as  wide  as  the  Ehine  at  Cologne,  but  with  a  less  rapid  current 
and  not  so  deep  a  stream.  The  west  side  is  very  picturesque ; 
a  series  of  limestone-bluflfs,  200  feet  high,  covered  on  their  face 
and  summit  with  autumn  tinted  woods,  and  broken  into  irregu- 
lar forms  by  little  valleys  branching  off  from  the  main  stream. 
As  we  quietly  proceed  on  our  course,  every  new  reach  opens  out 
a  fresh  scene  of  beauty,  and  we  are  soon  shut  in  on  both  sides 
by  lofty  ridges  of  limestone  rock.  In  many  places  this  ridge 
retires  a  short  way  from  the  water,  its  sharp  edge  disappears, 
and  a  round  grassy  face,  smooth  and  regular  au  a  lawn,  runs 
up  within  twenty  feet  of  the  top  of  the  sharp  peak  or  frowning 
rock  which  crowns  the  whole.  Single  trees  are  scattered  like 
ornamental  timber  over  the  green  hill  sides,  which  presents  the 
most  charming  natural  sites  for  building.  But  houses  there  are 
none,  except  here  and  there  at  a  landing-place  on  the  river, 
where  a  wooden  store  and  "oflSce"  invite  the  traveller  to  land 
and  become  an  unit  in  the  incipient  "  city."  There  are  also 
huts  on  the  edge  of  the  water  at  convenient  points  for  "  wood- 
ing," occupied  by  wood-cutters,  who  prepare  fuel  for  the  steam- 
vessels.     In  summer  the  banks  are  infested  with  musquitoes, 


104 


BIVEB  STEAMEBS. 


and  the  people  live  in  the  open  air,  round  large  fires,  to  protect 
themselves  from  the  insect.  The  farther  north  you  go  in  these 
latitudes,  during  the  short  but  hot  summer,  the  more  you  are 
liable  to  be  tormented  by  musquitoes. 

Our  steamer,  -which  draws  only  28  inches  of  water,  is  a  huge 
structure.  The  saloon  is  200  feet  long  and  8  feet  high,  with 
Gothic  roof  painted  white  and  gold.  There  are  little  sleeping 
cabins  along  both  sides  of  the  entire  length,  suflScient  to  ac- 
commodate 130  passengers.  The  fare  includes  provisions,  and 
an  abundant  table  is  served  three  times  a  day.  There  is  hardly 
any  difference  in  the  meals  in  this  western  country,  except  that 
to  breakfast  and  supper  we  are  offered  tea  and  coffee,  while  at 
dinner  cold  water  is  the  only  beverage.  The  manners  of  the 
people  we  meet  with  on  the  Mississippi  are  not  a  whit  exagger- 
ated by  Dickens  in  "  Martin  Chuzzlewit."  I  have  met  with 
instances  of  every  dirty  habit  which  he  describes,  and  any  Eng- 
lishman who  desires  to  see  the  West  must  steel  himself  against 
disagreeable  incidents  of  hourly  occurrence.  He  will  be  amply 
repaid  for  any  inconvenience  of  this  kind  by  the  vastness  of  the 
new  scenes  constantly  opening  before  him. 

The  high-pressure  engine  every  minute  emits  a  melancholy 
sigh,  but  it  drives  us  quietly  along  against  the  stream  at  a  tol- 
erable rate.  A  traveller  on  the  shore  holds  up  his  umbrella ; 
the  huge  vessel,  as  if  watching  him,  sheers  in  towards  the  soft 
bank,  runs  her  nose  upon  it,  a  plank  is  shoved  out,  and  the 
"  gent "  walks  on  board :  we  back  off  and  proceed.  The  ship 
is  managed  by  a  pilot,  who  has  a  glass-house  elevated  between 
the  paddle-boxes,  above  the  whole  superstructure,  and  from  this 
commanding  position  both  steers  the  vessel  and  communicates 
his  orders  to  the  engineer  by  a  signal  bell.  The  captain's 
business  seems  to  be  to  keep  order  in  the  ship,  and  to  take  the 
head  of  the  table  at  the  various  meals.  "While  standing  beside 
him  at  the  front  of  the  elevated  deck,  our  ship  began  to  back 


m 


(: 


THEIR  CONVENIENCE  AND  EISKS. 


105 


in  the  middle  of  the  river.  "  What's  the  matterl "  said  I. 
"Smelt  a  bar,  I  guess,"  said  the  captain,  "and  backing  out  in 
time."  "These  snags,"  said  I,  pointing  to  one,  "must  be 
troublesome  at  night ;  don't  they  take  them  out  ?  "  "  No,  we 
know  about  where  they  air,  and  keep  pretty  clear  of  them." 
"  Any  other  danger  on  the  river,  Captain  ?  "  *'  No,  only  two, 
a  sink  or  a  bum  up.  We  sometimes  snag — ^not  often — and 
sometimes  go  afire.  But  we  seldom  have  an  accident.  In  June 
last  there  was  a  burn  up, — a  few  miles  below ; — seldom  hap- 
pens though ! "  "  You  have  no  heavy  sea  to  trouble  you,  at  any 
rate ;"  I  threw  in  by  way  of  comfort.  "  I  gaess  not,"  said  the 
captain,  turning  full  upon  me,  "  we  build  these  steamers  strong 
enough  for  their  purpose,  Mister,  and  as  light  as  possible.  They 
are  for  the  river,  not  the  lake.  In  a  heavy  sea  they  would 
double  up  in  a  clip ;  and  that's  a  fact." 

There  are  many  sand-bars  in  the  river,  which,  at  this  season 
are  so  near  the  surface  that  the  vessel  sometimes  sticks.  But 
in  the  bows  two  great  legs  or  stilts  are  fixed,  like  little  masts, 
with  blocks  and  tackle,  and  when  the  steamer  "  bars,"  down 
go  the  stilts,  the  tackle  is  made  fast  to  the  capstan,  the  men 
pull  upon  it,  and  raise  the  ship  a  foot  or  more,  clean  off  the  bot- 
tom, at  the  bows.  The  paddles  are  then  set  on  full  steam,  and 
the  vessel  Ls  literally  jumped  over  the  bar.  I  asked  the  cap- 
tain if  by  this  means  he  could  get  over  any  ordinary  bar.  "  I 
reckon  I  could  lift  her  over  the  river  bank,  if  she  would  hang 
together,"  was  his  reply. 

We  passed  at  night  through  Lake  Pepin,  an  expansion  of 
the  river,  from  two  to  three  miles  broad  and  twenty-five  miles 
long.  The  scenery  is  said  to  be  very  beautiful,  but  we  could 
only  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  "  Maiden's  Kock,"  which  rises  sheer 
up  about  200  feet  from  the  water's  edge.  A  romantic  Amer- 
ican, an  individal  rarely  met  with,  told  me  its  story  in  the  star- 
light. Winona,  the  daughter  of  a  celebrated  Indian  warrior, 
5* 


■M 


'  i* 


:l 


"i 

•i'l 


106 


LAKE  PEPIN.      ST.   CROIX. 


had  been  betrothed  by  her  father  against  her  wish.  The  wed- 
ding-day was  appointed,  and  the  feast  was  being  prepared. 
She  and  her  young  companions  went  out  to  gather  a  berry  that 
grows  among  the  rocks.  It  was  a  summer  evening,  and,  busied 
in  their  occupation,  the  rest  did  not  observe  that  Winona  had 
parted  from  them.  Suddenly  from  the  summit  of  the  rock  a 
low  cry  was  heard.  It  was  the  death  song  of  Winona,  who,  in 
a  moment  more,  with  one  spring  from  the  edge  of  the  preci- 
pice, buried  herself  in  the  lake. 

At  a  place  called  Prescott,  at  the  jimction  of  the  St.  Croix 
river,  on  the  Wisconsin  side,  the  country  is  remarkably  pretty, 
wooded  and  park  like,  with  rounded  grassy  knolls  100  feet 
high,  which  slope  down  towards  the  water,  terminating  in  a 
precipitous  limestone  bank.  Here,  in  some  places,  the  prairie 
falls  gradually  to  the  edge  of  the  river.  The  country  for  some 
distance  back  is  all  bought  and  occupied,  but  none  of  the  set- 
tlers seem  to  choose  a  residence  among  the  wooded  glens.  A 
few  hours  more  bring  us  to  St.  Paul's. 


If,  4 


LETTER    X. 

St.  Paul's.— Route  to  Red  River.— Minnesota.— Daily  Newspapers.— Market 
Place.— Red  Indians  selling  wild  Ducks.— American  Militia.— Fort  Snelling.— 
Minnehaha.— Falls  of  St.  Anthony. — Lands  and  Funds  set  apart  for  Public 
Objects. — The  Credit  System.— Down  the  River  to  Dubuque. — Burlington. — 
Iowa.— Natural  Obstacle  to  Progress  of  Population  Westwards.- Wages. — 
Nauvoo.— St.  Louis  In  Missouri.— Slave  State. — Iron  Mountain. — Relative 
Cost  of  Production  of  British  and  American  Iron. 

St.  Paul's,  the  capital  of  Minnesota,  the  last  State  admitted  to 
the  Union,  stands  very  beautifully  on  a  sloping  limestone  ridge 
of  the  Mississippi,  upwards  of  2000  miles  from  its  mouth  at 
New  Orleans.  It  may  be  regarded  as  the  head  of  uninterrupted 
navigation,  for  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  only  nine  miles  fur- 
ther up,  close  the  passage.  Above  the  Falls,  however,  steam- 
ers ply  150  miles  stiU.  further  northwest.  From  this  highest 
point  it  is  proposed  to  make  a  land  connection  with  the  Red 
River,  which  flows  north,  and  is  navigable  for  300  miles  before 
it  enters  the  British  territory  at  Pembina. 

The  new  State  of  Minnesota  has  an  area  considerably 
greater  than  the  British  Isles.  The  southern  part  is  chiefly 
prairie,  very  level  for  great  distances  west,  as  was  shown  to  me 
in  a  section  of  the  railway  now  being  constructed.  The  soil  is 
considerably  more  sandy  than  that  of  Illinois ;  the  winters  are 
intensely  cold,  but  the  summers,  though  comparatively  short, 
generally  mature  the  various  corn  crops  which  are  cultivated. 
This  State  has  its  northern  boundary  along  the  British  terri- 
tory, at  present  possessed  by  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.     The 


■i 


"^;i 
M 


'^■^  rs 


oj 


i 


'■S-'i 
n 


1 08  ST.  PAULAS,  ITS  BONDS,  NEWSPAPEBS,  AIO)  MABKETS. 


crops  for  the  two  last  years  have  been  threatened,  and  par- 
tially injured,  by  a  plague  of  grasshoppers. 

A  bridge  is  in  course  of  construction  to  connect  the  two 
banks  of  the  river,  on  both  of  which  the  city  ||  being  built,  the 
one  to  be  called  East,  and  the  other  "West  St.  Paul's.  The 
houses  are  solidly  built  of  limestone,  the  material  for  the  walls 
and  mortar  being  found  in  excavating  the  foundation.  All 
kinds  of  public  improvement  are  rapidly  carried  into  execution, 
city  bonds  being  issued  to  defray  the  cost.  These  bonds  can 
be  purchased  to  yield  12  or  15  per  cent.,  and  may  prove  a  good 
security  if  population  continues  to  flock  to  Minnesota.  Banks, 
land  agency  oflSces,  and  newspapers,  are  already  numerous  in 
the  city.  The  newspapers  are  dailies,  and  in  walking  out  early 
on  the  Sunday  morning,  before  many  people  were  stirring,  I  was 
surprised  to  observe  the  morning  papers  already  laid  on  the  han- 
dle of  every  door,  or  shoved  in  below  it,  ready  for  the  owner's 
perusal  as  soon  as  he  should  make  his  appearance. 

The  market-place  on  Saturday  was  thronged  with  people 
buying  and  selling  their  various  produce.  The  Irish  had  sacks 
of  potatoes  and  other  vegetables,  the  Americans  dealt  in  beef; 
but  the  most  remarkable  looking  merchants  there  were  the  Red 
Indians,  who  were  selling  wild  ducks.  They  were  in  consid- 
erable numbers,  both  men  and  women,  in  their  native  costume, 
the  men  generally  carrying  good  double-barrelled  guns.  There 
are  still  several  Indian  tribes  at  no  great  distance  from  St. 
Paul's,  who  live  entirely  by  the  produce  of  their  guns. 

I  was  introduced  here  to  a  State  senator  who,  with  basket 
on  his  arm,  was  making  his  morning's  market.  I  was  after- 
wards indebted  to  this  gentleman  for  a  presentation  to  the  gov- 
ernor, whilst  he  was  reviewing  a  corps  of  volunteers  at  the  State- 
house.  They  were  very  soldierly-like  men,  their  uniform  more 
like  the  French  than  English,  and  they  seemed  to  go  through 
their  evolutions  very  creditably.     They  had  a  brass  gun,  and 


MILITIA.      ST.  Ain-HONT. 


100 


three  or  four  artillery  men  in  the  corps.  The  United  States 
have  an  enrolled  and  organised  militia  of  upwards  of  two  mil- 
lions and  a  half,  from  which  a  very  formidable  army  might 
readily  be  selected.  The  people  are  fond  of  soldiering.  In 
every  considerable  town,  some  volunteer  cavalry  or  infantry 
corps  will  be  found  parading  about,  but  I  never  saw  a  soldier 
of  the  regular  army  all  the  time  I  was  in  the  Union.  These 
are  all  posted  in  the  interior  of  the  continent  on  the  Indian 
frontier. 

In  pursuing  our  course  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  we  skirt 
along  between  the  prairie  country  and  the  bank  of  the  Missis- 
sippi. We  cross  the  river  by  a  ferry  below  Fort  Snelling,  one 
of  the  old  frontier  posts  now  abandoned.  It  stands  on  the 
point  of  the  promontory,  which  juts  out  into  the  junction  of  the 
Minnesota  River  with  the  Mississippi,  at  an  elevation  of  150 
feet,  and  must  have  been  capable  of  easy  defence  against  any 
sort  of  Indian  warfare.  Two  miles  farther  we  came  to  a  little 
gushing  stream,  where  is  laid  the  most  beautiful  scene  of  Long- 
fellow's Indian  poem,  "  Hiawatha," 

"  Where  the  falls  of  Minnehaha 
Flash  and  gleam  in.  shining  reaches, 
Leap  and  laugh  among  the  woodlands.*' 


We  dived  into  the  little  glen,  admired  the  waterfall,  drank 
of  its  fresh  waters,  and  finally  cut  walking-sticks  in  remem- 
brance of  it.  It  is  certainly  pretty ;  but,  as  an  American  has 
described  it,  unusually  "  neat."  The  water  pours  over  a  rock 
through  a  groove  which  exactly  fits  it,  and  it  runs  away  below 
with  all  the  regularity  of  a  mill  stream.  Nevertheless,  for  the 
lovely  Minnehaha's  sake,  we  did  our  best  to  admire  it.  There 
is  a  great  distinction  between  American  and  European  scenery 
in  this,  that  in  America  there  are  few  accessories  to  the  scene. 


110 


THE  FALLS. 


There  is  the  waterfall,  bat  no  enclosing  mountain — ^no  dashing 
along  over  rocky  bed  before  the  final  leap,  and  but  a  very  tame 
gorge  below.  The  face  of  the  country  is  generally  monoto- 
nous,— ^hundreds  of  miles  of  bare  prairie,  breaking  down  at  its 
edges  into  natural  troughs  for  the  water.  The  traveller  over 
the  prairie  comes  upon  the  great  river  suddenly;  and  sees,  per- 
haps a  hundred  feet  below  him,  the  vast  stream  flowing  along 
the  hollow  trough  which  it  has  worn  for  itself  in  the  course  of 
ages.  ' 

A  few  miles  farther  brought  us  to  St.  Anthony,  where  the 
Mississippi  makes  a  leap  over  the  rocks  of  some  twenty  or 
thirty  feet.  The  river  was  low ;  and  as  we  were  then  nearly 
the  whole  length  of  Europe  from  its  mouth,  we  did  not  expect 
too  much.  Moreover,  both  sides  of  it  belong  to  Jonathan,  and 
he  is  a  deal  too  sharp  to  throw  away  so  good  a  mill  power. 
On  each  side,  then,  the  main  body  of  the  water  is  caught,  and 
turned  to  the  servile  purpose  of  sawing  lumber.  The  surplus 
water  is  left  to  run  off  in  the  centre,  where  it  forms  a  little 
green  imitation  of  the  Great  Horse  Shoe  Fall  of  Niagara.  We 
literally  "hunted"  this  waterfall,  for  we  were  a  good  hour 
jumping  across  the  floating  logs,  and  along  the  various  dam 
faces,  before  we  reached  the  best  point  of  view.  The  young 
American  lumbermen  employed  here  are  fine  stalwart  men,  ex- 
tremely expert  in  the  use  of  the  axe,  by  which  they  earn  sev- 
eral dollars  a-day  at  piecework. 

We  returned  by  the  other  side  of  the  river,  which  is  crossed 
by  a  suspension  bridge  above  the  Falls.  This  brought  us  to 
the  new  city  of  St.  Anthony  and  its  vast  hotel,  now  seemingly 
empty,  then  past  a  college  which  has  recently  been  built  for 
higher  class  education. 

The  eighteenth  part  of  all  the  public  lands  in  Minnesota 
is  set  apart  for  the  support  of  schools ;  46,000  acres  more  are 
appropriated  for  a  State  university ;  6400  acres  for  the  erection 


ADYANTAOES  OF  TEE  CREDIT  SYSTEBC. 


Ill 


of  public  buildings  at  the  seat  of  goyemment,  and  5  per  cent, 
of  the  sales  of  all  public  lands  are  granted  to  the  State,  by 
Congress,  for  the  construction  of  public  roads  and  internal  im- 
provements. Besides  this,  every  alternate  square  mile  of  land, 
for  five  miles  on  each  side  of  the  lines,  is  granted  to  aid  in  the 
construction  of  various  lines  of  railway  which  are  intended  to 
traverse  the  State. 

The  system  of  credit  established  throughout  the  American 
Union,  if  very  unsound  in  all  times  of  diflSculty,  is  certainly 
productive  of  many  useful  results.  For  instance,  the  State  of 
Minnesota  has  fine  unoccupied  land,  which  is  of  no  value  so 
long  as  it  remains  inaccessible.  It  is  determiued  to  construct 
a  railway,  and  the  State  finds  the  funds  in  this  manner : — it 
issues  bonds  bearing  6  or  7  per  cent,  interest,  which  are  handed 
over  to  the  contractor  as  his  work  progresses.  These  bonds 
may  not  be  very  saleable  out  of  the  State,  but  the  contractor 
lodges  them  with  the  State  treasurer,  and  obtains,  in  lieu,  90 
per  cent,  of  their  amount  in  authorized  notes  of  issue.  With 
these  he  pays  his  wages  and  bills,  finishes  another  section  of 
road,  receives  a  second  instalment  of  State  stock,  makes  a  sec- 
ond issue  of  notes,  and  so  the  thing  goes  on  until  the  road  is 
made,  the  country  opened  up,  and  produce  brought  to  market 
The  bonds  are  cleared  off  as  the  land  is  sold,  and  everybody  is 
benefited. 


There  is  yet  only  one  way  of  going  to  or  returning  from  St. 
Paul's,  and  we  therefore  took  steamer  down  the  Mississippi 
over  our  former  course  as  far  as  Prarie  du  Chien.  We  pro- 
ceeded about  100  miles  farther  to  Dubuque,  in  Iowa,  where, 
and  at  Burlington,  200  miles  farther  down,  I  had  an  opportu- 
nity of  seeing  some  of  the  prairie  lands  of  that  State.  An 
Irish  settler,  who  had  been  seven  years  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Dubuque,  was  enthusiastic  in  his  praise  of  the  country.     He 


'n 


4\ 
M 

M 


112 


IOWA. 


said  that  the  grass  was  as  good  as  in  Ireland,  the  crops  of  corn 
better,  and  more  wealth  of  tin  and  lead  in  the  bowels  of  the 
earth  than  would  make  the  world  rich.  He  told  me  of  three 
cousins  of  his  who  came  out  three  years  ago,  with  money 
enough  to  buy  600  acres  among  them; — that  their  cattle, 
horses,  and  swine  had  increased  so  much  already  that  they  could 
not  count  them,  and  that  they  had  been  lately  offered  twice  as 
much  for  100  acres  of  their  land  as  they  had  originally  paid  for 
the  whole !  There  is  a  rich  mineral  district  round  Dubuque, 
similar  in  its  character  to  that  of  Galena,  on  the  opposite  shore 
of  the  river,  in  Illinois. 

^Burlington  is  finely  placed  on  the  side  of  a  bluff  rising  from 
the  river,  to  a  height  of  150  feet.  It  has  a  population  of 
15,000,  and  is  likely  to  increase,  as  the  system  of  railways 
which  centre  in  it  are  opened  up  westwards.  It  is  the  chief 
town  of  the  southern  part  of  Iowa,  and  the  railway  now  being 
constructed  from  it  to  the  Missouri  Eiver,  traverses  the  finest 
portion  of  the  State.  By  the  month  of  May,  this  line  is  ex- 
pected to  be  opened  as  far  as  the  Des  Moines  River.  I  trav- 
elled on  it  to  Fairfield,  its  present  terminus,  through  a  country 
of  prairie  and  woodland  intermixed.  It  seemed  not  more  roll- 
ing than  Illinois,  and  not  so  rich.  Very  little  clover  or  blue 
grass  is  seen  growing  along  the  line,  such  as  cheers  the  eye  to 
the  westward  of  Mendota.  The  buildings  in  the  towns  are  in- 
ferior, and  the  country  generally  looks  poorer.  There  is  no 
land  for  sale  along  the  line,  at  government  prices,  nearer  than 
fifteen  miles  distant, — and  enclosed  land  within  that  distance 
sells  at  from  ten  to  twenty  dollars  (2/.  to  4/.)  an  acre.  But  the 
market  on  the  Mississippi  is  not  equal  to  that  of  Chicago,  and 
the  land  of  Iowa  cannot  be  so  profitable  as  that  of  Illinois,  for 
the  cost  of  the  additional  transit  must  always  operate  against 
the  former.  Beyond  Fairfield,  the  line  traverses  a  coal  country, 
and  its  point  of  junction  with  the  Missouri  River  is  opposite  to 


WESTERN  BOUNDABT. 


113 


the  terminus  of  the  Platte  Eiver,  which  is  said  to  be  navigable 
600  miles  farther  west,  so  boundless  is  the  extent  of  this  coun- 
try. Here  is  a  railway  being  constructed  for  nearly  300  miles 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  through  a  region  the  greater  part  of 
which  has  yet  been  trodden  only  by  the  Indian  and  the  gov- 
ernment surveyor,  and  yet  its  terminus  is  but  the  starting  point 
for  another  600  miles,  through  a  country  as  extensive  as  Great 
Britain,  on  the  confines  of  which  are  the  newly  discovered  gold 
fields  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska. 

There  is  ground,  however,  for  believing  that,  beyond  a  cer- 
tain point  westwards,  the  country  will  be  found  from  climate 
not  so  well  adapted  to  the  maintenance  of  population.  The 
change  begins  at  the  meridian  of  95°  west  longitude.  The 
air  then  assumes  an  aridity  not  found  anywhere  to  the  east  of 
it,  and  at  the  98th  meridian  it  presents  an  abrupt  contrast  with 
the  country  east.  Mr.  Blodgett,  in  his  very  able  and  interest- 
ing work  on  the  climate  of  North  America,  points  out  this  fact, 
with  the  explanation  that  the  plains  here  have  an  elevation  of 
2000  feet  on  an  average.  This  arid  climate  is  not  only  unfa- 
vorable to  the  culture  of  corn  and  grass,  but  is  probably  pro- 
ductive of  those  enormous  flights  of  grasshoppers  which  for  two 
successive  seasons  have  seriously  damaged  the  crops  of  Iowa 
and  Minnesota.  The  western  side  of  both  these  States  is  within 
the  influence  of  this  aridity  of  atmosphere,  as  is  likewise  the 
British  settlement  on  the  Eed  Eiver,  where  on  several  occasions 
the  crops  have  been  utterly  destroyed  by  grasshoppers. 

There  is  a  population  of  600,000  in  Iowa.  The  foreigners 
are  chiefly  Germans  and  Irish,  the  latter  mostly  railway  la- 
bourers.   Wages  are  now  a  dollar  a-day. 

We  again  embarked  on  the  Mississippi,  passing  Nauvoo, 
the  first  Mormon  settlement  in  America,  now  broken  up  some 
years  ago.  After  a  farther  voyage  of  200  miles  we  reached 
St.  Louis,  one  of  the  great  cities  of  America.,  with  a  population 


114 


...•;-*  ■%■■    y 

MISSOUBI.     ST.  LOUIS. 


of  abou<  130,000.  It  was  formerly  called  the  "Mound"  city, 
from  a  great  mound  at  the  base  of  which  it  was  first  settled  by 
the  Spaniards,  and  which  is  said  by  the  Indians  to  have  been 
the  burial  place  of  their  fathers  for  ages, — by  others  to  have 
been  formed  by  the  Aztecs  before  the  time  of  the  Indians, — 
and  not  improbably  formed  by  nature  before  either  one  or  other. 
Jonathan  however  has  no  respect  for  antiquity,  and  this  famous 
"mound"  will  soon  be  entirely  cut  away  to  fill  up  an  embank- 
ment on  the  river,  and  to  enable  certain  streets  to  be  laid  out 
in  a  straight  line.  About  the  half  of  it  is  abeady  gone.  In 
another  year  probably  not  a  vestige  will  remain  of  that  which 
gave  the  name  at  first  to  this  city,  which  in  all  ages  has  been 
a  great  landmark  on  the  river,  the  sacred  place  of  the  Indians, 
and  which,  with  a  little  veneration  and  good  taste,  might  have 
been  left  to  form  a  great  feature  of  attraction  and  interest  in 
this  splendid  city. 

St.  Louis  is  a  fine  old  town  for  America,  situated  on  rising 
ground,  and  covering  a  large  extent  of  surface, — with  hand- 
some streets,  stores,  shops,  squares,  hotels,  and  churches.  The 
quays  along  the  river  are  literally  crowded  with  steamers,  lying 
abreast  of  each  other  in  tiers  three  and  four  deep.  This  is  a 
slave  State,  the  domestics  are  nearly  all  black«,  the  property  of 
their  masters. 

The  richest  part  of  the  country  is  along  the  banks  of  the 
river  Missouri.  Tobacco  is  chiefly  cultivated  there.  The  south- 
ern part  of  the  State  is  rocky  and  wooded.  Very  little  of 
it  has  been  taken  up  by  settlers,  and  any  quantity  may  be 
purchased  at  little  more  than  6c?.  an  acre.  But  it  is  not  agri- 
cultural land,  is  very  inaccessible,  and  Europeans  are  not  fond 
of  settling  in  a  slave  State. 

There  is  a  famous  deposit  of  iron  in  this  State,  called  the 
Iron  Mountain,  which  we  were  anxious  to  see.  There  is  a  rail- 
way to  it,  eighty  miles  in  length  from  St.  Louis.    The  line  runs 


THE  ntON  MOUNTAIN. 


115 


along  the  Mississippi  for  twenty-four  miles,  at  the  base  of  lime- 
stone bluffs  which  are  covered  with  oak,  and  by  an  undergrowth 
of  the  beautiful  red-leaved  sumac.  The  banks  and  sweeps  of 
the  river  are  very  picturesque.  When  we  leave  the  river,  we 
pass  over  an  undulating  wooded  country  with  many  streapas. 
Cleared  spots  yield  good  crops  of  corn,  now  in  shock,  and  the 
young  wheat  is  fresh  and  green.  But  the  land  generally  is  not 
very  tempting  for  agricultural  purposes.  Vine  culture,  how- 
ever, has  been  successfully  introduced  by  the  German  settlers, 
and  is  making  progress. 

The  Iron  Mountain  covers  a  surface  of  500  acres ;  it  rises 
to  a  height  of  between  200  and  300  feet  above  its  base,  and 
nearly  1000  above  the  bed  of  the  Mississippi,  from  which  it  is 
thirty-eight  miles  distant.  It  is  clothed  with  young  oak  and 
hickory  trees,  which  thrive  well  on  the  scanty  soil  between  the 
crevices  of  the  rock,  and  among  the  loose  stones  with  which  it 
is  covered.  The  whole  mountain,  and  every  stone  upon  it, 
is  nearly  pure  iron  ore,  there  being  only  2  to  3  per  cent,  of 
silica  and  alumina,  65  per  cent,  of  pure  iron,  and  the  remain- 
der oxygen.  The  quantity  above  the  base  is  estimated  at  two 
million  tons.  A  bore  of  150  feet  has  been  made,  at  the  base, 
without  meeting  with  any  change,  and  the  geologist  of  the  State 
says  that  it  may  be  of  any  depth,  if  it  is,  as  he  supposes,  a  mass 
of  iron  which  has  been  upheaved  through  a  fissure  of  the  earth's 
crust. 

No  coal  is  found  nearer  than  that  of  Illinois,  opposite  to 
St.  Louis,  and  the  cost  of  carriage  thus  operates  as  a  great  bar 
to  the  profitable  working  of  this  deposit.  The  Glasgow  black- 
band  iron  is  found  in  combination  with  sufficient  carbon  to  cal- 
cine, and,  in  some  cases,  even  to  smelt  it ;  and  there  are  al- 
ways strata  of  coal  found  with  the  iron  in  Scotland,  which  gives 
a  great  advantage  to  the  Scotch  iron-masters.  Lime,  which  is 
used  as  a  flux,  is  got  in  close  proximity  to  this  mountain. 


116 


AMERICAN  AND  BRITISH   IRON  TRADE 


Wood  charcoal  is  used  in  smelting ;  but  this  is  found  exp3D- 
sive,  and  a  tramway  is  now  being  made  from  the  qne'^y  to  t!ie 
railway,  with  the  view  of  transporting  the  iron  stons  to  St. 
Louis,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  coal.  When  the  ore  can  be 
loaded  directly  from  the  rock,  it  may  be  placed  on  the  cars  at 
the  cost  of  6d.  or  9d.  a  ton,  and  may  be  delivered  at  St.  Louis 
at  a  cost  of  about  4^. 

There  is  another  iron  mountain  on  Lake  Superior,  of  equally 
good  quality  and  purity.  An  axle  made  of  it  was  said  to  have 
stood  the  following  comparative  test :  blows  before  breikiur., 
Lake  Superior  iron,  177  :  best  Swedish,  77 :  English  Low 
Moor,  46.  The  present  cost  of  producing  one  ton  of  this  pig 
iron  on  the  wharf  is  $18 ;  the  cost  of  the  St.  Louis,  on  the 
wharf,  is  $16.  ' 

At  Pittsburg  and  Wheeling,  where  the  principal  iron  works 
of  America  are  situated,  they  have  the  same  natural  advantages 
for  the  economical  production  of  the  metal  as  in  England,  and 
the  supply  is  inexhaustlclo.  And  yet  the  United  States  pay 
more  than  5,000,000/.  a  year  for  foreign  iron.  The  native 
manufacturer  is  protected  by  an  import  duty  of  24  per  cent., 
and  freight  and  charges  will  amount  to  10  per  cent.  more. 
And  yet  with  this  disadvantage  of  34  per  cent,  against  him, 
the  English  iron-master  can  undersell  the  American  at  his  own 
door  I  The  Americans  are  careless  in  their  management,  they 
have  not  sufBcient  capital  embarked  in  their  works,  and  they 
expect  larger  profits  than  the  English  :.?  or* anted  with. 
There  is  not  much  diflference  in  the  actual  'O^t  oi  '.\^\"xr :  it  ..y 
be  a  trifle  higher  in  America :  but  an  Aiaoiican  capitalist  can- 
not obtain  the  same  constant  supply  of  skilled  labour  as  the 
Englishman  can  command.  The  country  is  so  vast,  and  the 
teu?\tation  to  other  and  easier  pursuits  so  great,  that  there  is 
no  curifi".  cy  to  certain  employments  as  in  England.  The  la- 
bouimg  population  in  America  is  not  stable,  it  is  a  shifting, 


COMPABED. 


117 


unsteady,  impr""ing,  adviBiemg  mass.  And,  for  many  ymn 
to  come,  an  old  populous  country  like  Enp^land  will  ccxntinuo  to 
have  the  advantage  of  her,  in  every  kind  of  work  which  de- 
mands concentration  of  power,  and  the  applicatio "»  of  large  in- 
dividual capital. 

But  in  some  States  great  progress  is  being  made  in  the  man- 
ufacture of  iron.  Between  1850  and  185*". ,  the  quantity  ol  pig 
iron  produced  in  Ohio  increased  from  52,000  tons  to  106,W)0 
tons,  though  even  this  quantity  is  little  more  than  one-third 
the  annual  produce  of  the  iron-works  of  a  single  great  finn  in 
Scotland 


;*3 


LETTER   XI 


The  Ohio.— Cincinnati,— Vine  Culture.- Kentucky.— Lourbon  Whisky.— Cin» 
cinnatl  to  Columbus.— Small  Farmers  decreasing.— Westward  Movement  of 
Population.— Indian  Corn  never  fails. — Wheat  precarious. — Average  Produce 
very  low.— Live  Stock.— Profits  of  Farming.— Labour  economised  by  Steam.— 
Quantity  of  Whisky  produced.— Public  Expenditure  on  Education.— Com- 
pared with  England.— Rate  of  Taxation.— Crossing  the  AUeghanles.— Vir- 
ginia.—Maryland.— Washingtoa.—Baltimore.— Philadelphia.— New  York.— 
Boston. — Home. 


I  PASSED  rapidly  during  the  night  through  Indiana,  reaching 
the  Ohio  Kiver  at  Lawrenceburg  the  next  morning.  The  banks 
on  both  sides  of  this  muddy  stream  are  high  and  clothed  with 
wood.  They  recede  some  distance  from  the  river,  leaving  a 
valley  which  is  extremely  rich  and  highly  cultivated.  Near 
Cincinnati  the  hill  sides  are  covered  with  vineyards,  with  pretty 
rural  villas  interspersed.  Vine  culture  has  been  profitable  here, 
and  is  extending.  Ohio  produces  annually  700,000  gallons  of 
Catawba  champagne,  a  sweet  sparkling  wine,  not  equal  to  that 
of  France. 

Forty  years  ago  Cincinnati  was  a  small  town.  It  has  now 
a  population  of  200,000,  and  is  a  very  fine  city,  with  many  pub- 
lic buildings,  shops,  and  streets  of  great  architectural  elegance. 
There  is  an  excUent  public  library  and  news-room,  to  which 
strangers  are  admitted. 

I  took  a  run  by  railway  100  miles  into  Kentucky  to  Lex- 
ington, the  home  of  Henry  Clay.  This  State  is  famous  for  its 
grazing  properties,  a  red  soU  lying  on  limestone,  and  the  fields, 
where  the  country  is  cleared  of  timber,  are  green  and  rich-look- 


KENTUCKY — OHIO. 


119 


ing.  The  cattle  are  well-bred  short-horns.  Very  large  herds 
of  mules  may  be  seen  penned  together,  100  or  more  in  one  lot. 
No  stock  pays  better.  Pigs  are  likewise  fed  in  large  numbers 
together,  penned  on  a  cleared  piece  of  Indian  corn,  with  which 
they  are  regularly  and  abundantly  supplied.  In  Bourbon 
county  a  famous  whisky  is  made  from  Indian  corn,  which 
bears  as  high  a  character  in  the  States  as  Islay  or  Glenlivat 
does  in  Scotland.  This  is  a  slave  State,  and  the  field  labourers 
are  mostly  slaves. 

After  returning  to  Cincinnati  we  pursued  our  journey  east- 
wards, passing  for  some  miles  through  the  pretty  valley  of  the 
Little  Miami.  The  rest  of  the  country  to  Columbus,  the  cap- 
ital of  the  State,  is  partially  cleared,  but  chiefly  covered  with 
primeval  forest.  An  American  in  the  railway  carriage  was 
complaining  that  this  State  was  rapidly  going  into  the  hands 
of  large  landholders,  and  that  the  poor  man  would  soon  have 
no  place.  But  the  poor  men  are  voluntary  emigrants.  They 
find  it  a  thankless  task  to  struggle  with  the  forest,  sell  their 
farms  to  the  adjoining  proprietors,  and  push  off"  westwards  to 
the  rich  open  prairies.  Those  who  remain  gradually  absorb  the 
neighbouring  lands,  and  the  uncleared  country  continues  un- 
disturbed. Nor  will  it  be  much  disturbed  for  a  generation  or 
two,  for  there  is  lake  and  railroad  access  to  the  prairies,  and 
men  will  not  toil  at  these  wooded  solitudes  when  they  can  turn 
their  furrow  without  impediment  on  the  black  prairie. 

In  the  Ohio  State  Keport  for  1857,  this  movement  of  the 
agricultural  population  is  referred  to  at  some  length,  and  it  is 
there  shown  that  a  decrease  in  numbers  had  taken  place  in 
many  counties,  and  that  in  five  townships  named,  in  one  of  the 
best  wheat  counties  of  the  State,  the  farming  population  had 
decreased  6  per  cent,  through  the  emigration  of  "  small  farmers 
seeking  a  better  home  on  the  virgin  soil  of  the  West."  It  is 
there  stated  that  not  less  than  140,000  persons  had  thus  emi- 


120 


DIMINUTION  OP  CROPS, 


1 


grated  from  Ohio  since  1850.  We  cannot  feel  much  surprised, 
therefore,  that  the  Indian  corn  crop  of  Ohio  in  1856  was  a  mil- 
lion bushels  less  than  that  of  1849,  and  the  wheat  crop  of  1856 
actually  a  million  bushels  less  than  it  was  seventeen  years  be- 
fore, in  1839. 

From  the  results  of  a  series  of  crops  extending  over  nine 
years,  it  may  be  inferred  that  Indian  corn  never  fails  in  Ohio, 
but  that  the  produce  alternates  in  alternate  years ;  that  the 
years  of  least  productiveness  are  those  of  more  than  usual  dry- 
ness ;  and  that  the  diflference  between  a  good  and  a  bad  season 
may  make  a  difference  of  half  the  produce.  Between  the  crop 
of  1855  and  that  of  1856  there  was  a  difference  of  30,000,000 
bushels. 

The  production  of  wheat  in  Ohio  has  been  diminishing  dur- 
ing the  last  eight  years,  though  this  received  a  slight  check 
during  the  three  years  of  high  prices  before  1858.  It  is,  how- 
ever, quite  clear  that  wheat  is  found  to  be  a  very  precarious 
crop  in  Ohio.  While  Indian  corn  is  rarely  injured  by  anything 
but  drought,  wheat  has  to  contend  not  only  with  that,  but  with 
other  enemies  not  less  destructive,  viz.  winter  freezing,  rust, 
the  midge,  and  red  weevil.  The  average  produce  has  thereby 
been  reduced  to  fourteen  bushels  an  acre,  and  the  average  for 
the  State  in  1854  was  only  eight  bushels !  Such  scanty  crops 
can  leave  no  profit  to  the  farmer. 

Nor  have  animal  products  undergone  any  material  increase 
during  the  last  eight  years.  Horses  and  mules  have  increased 
considerably,  but  the  increase  of  cattle  is  met  by  a  proportional 
decrease  of  sheep,  and  the  numbers  of  swine,  in  the  production 
of  which  Ohio  is  the  chief  State  of  the  Union,  have  not  materi- 
ally augmented  during  the  last  seventeen  years.  In  1840  the 
number  was  2,099,000,  and  in  1857  2,331,000. 

The  net  income  received  from  cultivated  land  in  Ohio  is 
reckoned  at  10  per  cent.     This  includes  rent  and  profit,  except 


ENOBMOUS  PRODUCnON  OP  WmSKT. 


121 


M 


that  portion  of  the  produce  which  is  consumed  in  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  farmer's  family,  and  which  is  included  in  the  cost 
of  production.  The  cost  of  farm  labour  averages  one  dollar  a 
day,  without  board. 

The  extent  to  which  labour  is  economised  in  thi^  State  by 
steam  power  is  estimated  to  be  equal  to  the  labour  of  700,000 
men.  The  number  of  reaping  and  mowing  machines  manu- 
factured in  1857  was  about  7000,  which  is  seven  times  as 
many  as  in  all  England  for  either  that  year  or  last.  It  is  by 
means  like  these  that  America  accomplishes,  with  compara- 
tively few  hands,  the  cultivation  of  such  vast  extents  of  land. 

The  quantity  of  whisky  produced  in  Ohio  is  extraordinary, 
being  not  less  than  26,000,000  of  gallons  annually.  This  is 
double  the  quantity  made  in  all  Scotland,  and  very  nearly 
equals  the  annual  consumption  of  spirits  in  the  whole  of  the 
United  Kingdom.  The  quantity  of  spirits  consumed  in  Great 
Britain  has  been  computed  to  be  equal  to  one  gallon,  or  six 
bottles,  a  head  for  every  person  of  all  ages  and  sexes  of  the 
entire  population.  But  Ohio  leaves  us  far  in  the  distance,  as 
her  production  of  whisky  is  equal  to  sixty-eight  bottles  for 
every  individual  of  her  entire  population.  No  argument 
against  the  temperate  habits  of  the  people  can,  however,  be 
founded  on  this  fact  with  any  certainty,  as  a  very  large  quan- 
tity of  spirits  is  exported  to  other  States,  and  much  of  it  is 
used  in  the  arts  and  manufactures  of  the  country. 

K  pre-eminent  in  the  production  of  whisky,  Ohio  stands 
high  in  the  support  of  education.  She  expends  half  a  million 
sterling  yearly  in  the  maintenance  of  schools,  which  is  at  the 
rate  of  125.  Qd.  for  each  child  in  the  State.  The  public  ex- 
penditure in  Great  Britain  for  the  same  object  does  not  exceed 
2s.  for  each  child  in  the  population.  It  is  a  very  remarkable 
fact  that  this  single  State,  which,  in  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury was  an  almost  untrodden  forest,  spent  nearly  as  much  of 
6 


!  i' 


I  "it 


■  ''1 


%,  ■:>] 


"Si 


122 


EDUCATION  AND  TAXATION. 


I 


the  public  taxes  in  1856  on  the  support  of  education  as  our 
own  old,  populous,  and  wealthy  country.  Nor  is  this  the 
whole  property  devoted  to  education ;  for,  besides  the  amount 
which  I  have  mentioned  as  levied  by  taxation,  the  thirty-sixth 
part  of  all 'the  lands,  amounting  to  800,000  acres,  are  set  aside 
for  the  support  of  schools. 

The  average  rate  of  taxation  for  Ohio  is  1'02  per  cent,  on 
the  estimated  capital  value  of  the  entire  property  of  every 
kind  in  the  State.  As  the  net  income  from  land  is  estimated 
at  10  per  cent.,  this  rate  of  taxation  on  capital  is  equivalent 
to  a  Uttle  over  10  per  cent,  on  the  annual  income.  And  yet 
this  State  is  reckoned  to  be  moderately  taxed  compared  with 
many  others. 

After  visiting  Columbus,  the  capital  of  the  State,  we  push- 
ed on  to  "Wheeling,  where  we  crossed  the  Ohio  river,  and  en- 
tered Virginia.  Day  was  just  breaking  as  we  reached  Alta- 
mont,  the  loftiest  station  on  the  AUeghanies,  and  we  then 
commenced  our  descent  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  mountains. 
They  are  clothed  with  wood  to  their  summits,  and  the  glens 
along  which  the  train  shot  rapidly  out  and  in  are  pretty,  but 
not  wild.  We  followed  the  course  of  a  wimpling  streamlet 
which  gathered  to  itself  all  the  little  rills  from  every  hill  side, 
and  during  the  ten  hours  of  our  continuous  journey,  saw  it 
growing  by  degrees,  in  a  course  of  150  miles,  into  a  majestic 
river,  the  Potomac.  The  scenery  was  very  interesting  during 
the  whole  day's  ride,  but  became  extremely  fine  as  we  approach- 
ed Harper's  Ferry,  where  there  is  but  one  gorge  through  the 
mountains  for  river,  canal,  and  railroad.  The  mountains  rise 
on  either  side  to  a  considerable  height,  the  river  dashes  along 
against  the  precipitous  rock  on  both  sides,  and  the  railroad  for 
a  mile  or  more  is  carried  on  piers  above  the  stream  till  the 
gorge  is  passed,  and  a  narrow  strip  of  ground  gives  it  a  firmer 
footing.     We  soon  reach  the  low  country,  in  Maryland,  which 


WASHINGTON. — BALTIMOBE. 


128 


begins  to  resemble  England.  The  farm-houses  are  substan- 
tial, the  fields  often  enclosed  with  thorn  hedges,  the  wheat  and 
sown  grass  a  lively  green.  After  traversing  some  extent  of 
woodland  country  we  reached  Washington  in  the  evening. 

This  city,  which  is  the  seat  of  government,  has  been  laid 
out  on  a  scale  of  magnificence,  the  first  outline  of  which  will 
not  soon,  if  ever,  be  filled  up.  It  is  not  a  place  where  busi- 
ness is  likely  to  centre,  and  the  President  has  no  court  to  at- 
tract the  residence  of  the  wealthy.  Thus,  except  when  Con- 
gress is  in  session,  there  are  few  people  of  consideration  in 
the  city,  except  the  President  and  his  ministers,  the  heads  of 
departments,  and  foreign  ambassadors.  Standing  on  the  dome 
of  the  capitol  the  fine  broad  streets  are  seen  radiating  in 
straight  lines,  but  all  terminating  abruptly  in  the  primeval 
forest.  The  capitol  is  a  building  of  great  magnificence,  two 
wings  of  white  marble  having  recently  been  added  to  it.  The 
two  branches  of  the  national  legislature  occupy  each  wing, 
and  ornament  is  very  lavishly  bestowed  in  the  decoration  of 
the  interior  of  both.  Each  member  has  a  desk  in  front  of  his 
seat,  with  his  name  afiixed  to  it,  the  seats  being  drawn  for  by 
lot  at  the  commencement  of  every  new  Congress.  The  Smith- 
sonian Institute,  the  Observatory,  and  the  Patent  OflBce,  are 
the  three  other  public  buildings  in  Washington  most  worthy 
of  inspection. 

The  country  between  Washington  and  Baltimore  is  undu- 
lating and  wooded,  but  the  soil  all  the  way  is  either  a  wet 
clay  or  sand, — a  poor  country  for  man  or  beast. 

The  city  of  Baltimore,  with  a  population  of  170,000,  lies 
low*  on  a  bay  of  the  Chesapeake.  The  whole  country  here  is 
indented  with  bays,  which  are  both  picturesque  and  conven- 


*  Baltimore  is  built  on  several  hills.     The  business  part  only  is  along 
the  river — most  of  the  city  being  elevated. — Am.  Ed. 


124 


PHILADELPHIA. 


ient.  The  chief  business  on  the  quays  seemed  to  be  the  load- 
ing and  unloading  of  tobacco.  There  is  a  fine  monumental 
pillar  to  Washington  in  the  upper  part  of  the  town,  and  many 
large  and  handsome  residences  in  that  neighbourhood.  But 
it  was  not  thought  safe  to  walk  alone  in  the  streets  after  dark. 
A  system  of  terrorism  had  been  established  by  the  "  Know- 
nothing,"  or  American  party,  in  the  city,  which  had  led  to 
several  murders,  and  law  and  order  were  being  set  at  defiance. 
The  mayor  had  expressed  a  determination  to  put  this  down, 
but  it  seemed  questionable  whether  he  possessed  the  power. 

The  ride  from  Baltimore  to  Philadelphia  is  very  pleasing. 
We  pass  numerous  bays  of  the  Chesapeake,  until  we  cross  the 
Susquehanna  below  Harford, — and,  on  reaching  the  banks  of 
the  Delaware,  the  country  becomes  fertile  and  cultivated.  The 
position  of  Philadelphia  is  remarkably  fine,  placed  on  the  apex 
of  land  between  the  Delaware  and  Schuylkill.  A  great  city 
with  half  a  million  of  inhabitants,  it  seemed  designed  by  na- 
ture to  be  the  capital  of  the  country.  There  is  more  of  the 
staidness,  and  quiet  respectability,  of  an  old  and  wealthy 
country  about  this  city  and  its  people,  than  I  have  seen  in  any 
other  part  of  the  United  States.  Many  of  the  shops  in  the 
principal  streets  are  built  of  white  marble,  and  one  or  two  of 
them  exceed  in  elegance  of  external  appearance  any  that  I 
have  ever  seen  either  in  London  or  Paris. 

After  a  short  stay  we  continued  our  journey  to  New  York 
and  Boston,  from  which  place  I  embarked  in  the  good  steam 
ship  "  America,"  under  the  careful  guidance  of  Captain  Millar, 
and,  after  a  pleasant,  though  somewhat  stormy  passage  of  ten 
days,  arrived  again  in  safety  in  liverpool. 


APPENDICES. 


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128 


I 


Appendix  II. 

Composition  of  the   Four  Prairie    Soils^  showing  the 
Portion  soluble  in  Acids  and  the  Portion  insoluble. 


No.  I. 

No,  11. 

No.  in. 

No.  IV. 

Soluble. 

♦Organic  matter  and  water  of  Com- ) 

bination \ 

Alumina 

7-64 

^•80 
4-95 
•44 
•45 
•65 
trace. 
•08 
•07 

•74 

(82-28) 

8^87 
•93 
•68 

104 

•82 

7504 

676 

1^57 
2-67 
•35 
•40 
•34 
trace. 
•05 
•05 

-63 

(8S-38) 

4-98 

none. 

113 

106 

•53 

80^68 

9-77 

8  61 
4-1? 

•77 
Tl 
-15 
•05 
•li 
•14 

•82 

(80-33) 

5-07 
1-07 

•61 
1^05 

•78 
71-76 

006 

3-38 
4^30 
•64 
•35 
•19 
•08 
•10 
•08 

•09 

(81-84) 

6-36 
•69 
-26 

1-10 

-42 

7411 

Oxides  of  iron 

Lime 

Magnesia 

Potash 

Soda 

Phospiioric  acid 

Sulpnuric  acid 

CarDonlo  acid,  traces  of  chlorine  and  / 
loss \ 

Iktsolttble. 
Insoluble  silicates  and  land 

Consisting  of— 

Alumina 

Lime 

Magnesia 

Potash 

Soda 

Silica 

*  Containing  Nitrogen 

100- 00 

100-00 

100-00 

100-00 

•30 
•36 

•26 
.31 

•33 
•40 

•34 
-41 

£qual  to  Ammonia 

Royal  Agricultural  College,  Cirencester, 
Decetnber  28thy  1858. 


Augustus  Voelckek. 


Appendix  III. 

"  Royal  Agricultural  College, 
Cirencester,  Dec.  28th,  1858. 
"  Dear  Sie, — ^I  have  now  the  pleasure  of  handing  you  the  re- 
sults of  detailed  and  careful  analyses  of  the  four  soils  you  sent  to 


•  I 


LETTEB  OP  PBOFESSOB  VOBLCKER. 


i»i 


» 


me  about  a  month  ago.  At  the  same  time  I  enclose  copies  of  two 
remarkably  fertile  soils  resting  on  the  old  red  sandstone  formation, 
as  analysed  by  myself  some  time  ago,  and  also  a  series  of  soil  analy- 
ses made  some  years  ago  by  Professor  Anderson  at  request  of  the 
Highland  Agricultural  Society  of  Scotland. 

"  You  will  not  fail  to  recognise  a  general  similarity  in  the  com- 
position of  your  soils,  and  observe  that  they  all  contain  lai^  quan- 
tities of  potash,  no  doubt  in  the  state  of  easily  decomposable  silicate 
of  potash.  With  the  exception  of  No.  2,  they  also  contain  silicate 
of  lime,  which  in  No.  2  appears  to  be  entirely  replaced  by  silicate 
of  magnesia. 

"  The  soils  are  not  very  rich  in  phosphd  Ju  acid,  but  still  there  is 
amply  sufficient  to  meet  all  the  requirements  of  plants  usually  cul- 
tivated on  the  farm.  However,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  phos- 
phatic  manures,  especially  for  root  crops,  should  be  used  liberally 
on  your  soils,  and  guano  and  other  ammoniacal  manures  more  spar- 
ingly, for  you  will  perceive  that  all  four  soils  are  very  ricii  in  nitro- 
genised  organic  matter.  Indeed,  I  have  never  analysed  before  soils 
tohieh  contained  eo  much  nitTogen,  nor  do  I  find  any  records  of  soils 
richer  in  nitrogen  than  yours. 

"  In  No.  2  the  proportion  of  nitrogen  is  smaller  than  in  the  three 
other  soils,  which  might  have  been  expected,  since  there  is  not  so 
much  organic  matter. 

"  In  the  soil  from  the  Carse  of  Gowrie  Dr.  Anderson  found  2 
per  cent,  of  nitrogen,  which  he  considers  a  large  proportion.  Dr. 
Anderson,  referring  to  this  constituent,  say«.  'The  actually  large 
amount  of  this  quantity  may  not  be  apparent  en  it  is  expressed 
in  fractions  of  a  per  cent,  j  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  weight 
of  the  soil  ten  inches  deep  on  an  acre  is,  in  round  numbers,  about  a 
thousand  tons,  and  that  quantity  will  contain  about  two  tons  of  ni- 
trogen. It  will  further  serve  to  illustrate  its  abundance  to  mention 
that  a  crop  of  wheat,  amounting  to  36  bushels,  with  straw,  contains 
about  52  lbs.  of  nitrogen,  and  a  crop  of  Swedish  turnips  only  about 
36  lbs. 

"  In  the  least  fertile  of  your  four  soils,  and  I  consider  No.  2  the 
least  fertile,  in  a  purely  chemical  point  of  view,  there  is  more  nitro- 
gen than  in  the  Carse  soil.    It  is  this  large  amount  of  nitrogen, 

6* 


130 


LETTER   OF   PROFESSOR   VOELCKER. 


and  the  beautiful  state  of  division,  that  impart  a  peculiar  character 
to  your  soils,  and  distinguish  them  so  favourably. 

*'  They  are  soils  upon  which  I  imagine  flax  could  be  grown  in 
perfection,  supposing  the  climate  to  be  otherwise  favourable.  There 
is  one  particular  to  which  I  would  direct  your  attention.  None  of 
these  four  soils  contains,  in  comparison  with  other  soils,  a  high 
percentage  of  lime,  and  No.  2  especially  I  think  would  be  benefit- 
ed by  an  occasional  application  of  lime.  The  soil  No.  3  contains 
most  lime,  both  as  carbonate  and  in  the  state  of  silicate  of  lime. 

"I  have  analysed  separately  the  portion  soluble  in  acids,  and 
the  portion  of  the  solids  insoluble  in  acids.  The  analysis  of  the  in- 
soluble silicates  requires  fusion  and  takes  up  much  time,  and  for 
this  reason  I  could  not  send  you  the  results  before. 

"  For  comparison's  sake  with  other  soils,  I  have  put  together 
the  results  obtained  in  the  analysis  of  the  portion  soluble  in  acids, 
and  those  obtained  in  the  analysis  of  the  insoluble  silicates,  so  that 
you  may  see  at  a  glance  the  total  amount  of  lime,  potash,  &c.,  in 
100  parts  of  dry  soil.  In  the  same  table  I  have  given  approximate 
determinations  of  the  amount  of  sand,  i>lay,  lime  and  organic  mat- 
ter, which  may  be  useful  for  some  purposes. 

"  Believe  me,  dear  Sir, 
"Yours  faithfully, 

"Augustus  Voelcker. 
"  J.  Caird,  Esq.,  M.  P." 


THE  END 


